I recently got a very short email sent to me to a press release about the first EMR to receive the full CCHIT 2011 Comprehensive Certification. I’m not sure what they wanted me to do with the release, and so I guess I’ll do what I normally do and call it the way I see it.

Does this EHR vendor consider the fact that they’re the first EHR to get the CCHIT 2011 Comprehensive Certification as a badge of wisdom that everyone will applaud? I’m guessing they’ve probably never read my past posts about CCHIT. Otherwise, I’m not sure they would have sent me that press release. However, I think it’s worth asking ourselves whether this was a smart move or a stupid one.

Certainly they’re going to get some coverage because their the first EHR certified. This blog post is proof of that. However, even in the short term will doctors care that they have the “comprehensive” CCHIT certifcation as opposed to the ARRA/HHS certification?

The doctors that I talk to aren’t asking for “comprehensive CCHIT certification.” Instead there asking one (or both) of these questions: “How do I get the EMR stimulus money?” and/or “Is yours a certified EHR?” Of course, half of the doctors out there are actually saying “EMR stimulus money? Huh?” but that’s a topic for another post. The interesting part is that in the next 6 months EHR vendors should be able to answer either of the above questions in the affirmative and never be CCHIT certified at all (see Drummond Group EHR Certification as one example).

If my above assumption is correct, then most doctors could care less about CCHIT “comprehensive” EHR certification. Then, that also means that the first EHR vendor to be fully “CCHIT Certified 2011 Ambulatory EHR” is going to look pretty silly having spent a TON of money on certification and development time to be certified. Imagine the great features that could have been developed with that money instead of being spent on a meaningless certification.