Hospital CIO’s Take on CCHIT

Written by: John Lynn

I’ve wanted to post about this for a few days and just haven’t had time. One of my favorite HIT bloggers, Will Weider, wrote a really interesting post about CCHIT. Yes, I kept reading even after he said, “I love CCHIT.”

Will’s main point is that just because one vendor doesn’t meet the CCHIT certification, doesn’t mean a combination of vendors couldn’t create a system that was equal or better than a CCHIT Certified EHR. A fine point that I’m sure CCHIT will never find a solution for.

However, this paragraph from Will really described my feelings well:

The problem is that vendor functionality does not determine how well an EHR is implemented. I could have a vendor that provided my organization the richest functionality one could imagine, and still implement it in a way that totally sucks.

I think will could have replaced “vendor functionality” with “CCHIT Certification” and had a quote like this:

The problem is that [CCHIT Certification] does not determine how well an EHR is implemented. I could have a [CCHIT Certified EHR] that provided my organization the richest functionality one could imagine, and still implement it in a way that totally sucks.

So, what’s the purpose of using CCHIT Certification?

I can easily think of a long laundry list of problems that CCHIT Certification causes. What I can’t understand is how CCHIT Certification does any good at encouraging implementation of good EHR programs. Maybe someone can help me out in the comments.