EHR Partners Program FAQ
What is the EHR Partners Program?
The EHR Partners Program (EPP) is a new College initiative developed as a service to members who are interested in purchasing an EHR system for their practices. One of the greatest barriers to EHR adoption is the financial risk to the practice; the EPP helps to lower that risk through information-sharing. ACP's EHR Partners are CCHIT certified EHR vendors that have agreed to share detailed product information through this program.
What does CCHIT certified mean?
CCHIT stands for the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. CCHIT began certifying EHR systems in 2006. Certification validates a baseline of system functionality, interoperability and security. CCHIT certified EHR systems have been tested through a juried system that includes an independent (non-vendor) physician juror as well as attestation by desktop review. EHR vendors certify against an annual set of criteria with new criteria added and previous criteria modified each year. CCHIT certification lasts for three years, e.g., those who certified on 2006 criteria maintain that certification until 2009. CCHIT certifies systems in two categories, ambulatory EHR systems and in-patient EHR systems. ACP's EHR Partners Program focuses only on ambulatory EHR systems. There are currently over 104 ambulatory EHR vendors certified by CCHIT. Solicitation of EHR Partners for this program are from among these CCHIT certified vendors.
How does the EHR Partners Program help the practicing physician in search of an EHR?
The EHR Partners Program is specifically designed to assist practicing physicians, particularly those who practice alone or in small groups, with the resource-intensive process of product selection and review. There are currently over 80 ambulatory EHR vendors certified on 2006 CCHIT criteria and two dozen on the 2007 criteria. The EPP enables physicians to navigate more efficiently through the selection and evaluation process by providing several sources of information on each participating EHR vendor. In addition to sharing their product information for review, each EHR vendor partner also agreed to share pricing information.
Were all EHR vendors invited to participate?
The 2008 EPP focuses solely on EHR applications that have achieved 2006 and 2007 certification from the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT). While there are many non-certified EHRs in use, the College strongly recommends that physicians, who are entering the EHR arena for the first time or looking to upgrade an older system, consider a certified EHR.
What information was used to evaluate participating EHR systems?
Four sources of information were used when available: 1) EHR vendor responses to a Request for Information (RFI)-- a tool typically used as part of the technology purchasing process), 2) ACP member responses to an EHR satisfaction survey that focused primarily on usability and implementation support, 3) a scripted demonstration of the product based on a patient visit and 4) a reference site visit to a physician practice with an EHR partner installation.
What tools are available to help me on the EHR Partners Program web page?
Two sets of tools were developed for this program. One tool is a summary report that lists the EHR Partners and the results of the evaluation of the four sources of information (RFI, ACP member satisfaction survey, EHR vendor demo and installation site visit). This tool provides a quick, at-a-glance way to see aggregated information on each EHR application. From this summary, members can drill down to detailed profiles of each EHR product by using the links provided. The second tool is an interactive EHR Product Selector Tool. Using this tool, members can: 1) select up to three EHR Partners and then compare information about each vendor or 2) select among a set of criteria, e.g., cost rating, type of implementation support provided), to identify which EHR Partners meet that criteria. Once the EHR products have been identified, the same comparison functionality is available as described in 1).
How do I use the pricing information?
Each EHR Partner was asked to provide a set of pricing for members. The goal of having the EHR vendors supply this information is to provide members with a comparison of costs for a standardized configuration and set of functionality across EHR Partners. Any differences from the standard configuration that the vendor identified in the submission materials are noted. Variations in final purchase price for any member will depend on the specific components and services that are selected for implementation.
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