HHS Issues HIT Safety Plan

The HHS Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan was issued recently. The Safety Plan addresses the role of HIT in helping to eliminate medical errors, protect patients, and improve the quality and safety of health care.

The Safety Plan is implemented by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). It outlines the responsibilities to be shared across HHS and details significant participation from the private sector.

• ONC will make it easier for clinicians to report HIT-related incidents and hazards through the use of certified EHR technology.
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will encourage reporting to patient safety organizations and will develop ambulatory common formats that will enhance reporting of HIT events outside the hospital.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will encourage the use of the common formats in hospital incident reporting systems, and train surveyors to identify safe and unsafe practices associated with HIT.
• Working through a public-private process, ONC will develop priorities for improving the safety of HIT. ONC and CMS will consider adopting safety-related objectives, measures, and capabilities for certified EHRs through the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and ONC’s standards and certification criteria.
  

ONC also has posted guidance clarifying that ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies (ONC-ACBs) will be expected to verify whether safety-related capabilities work properly in live clinical settings in which they are implemented.  

Finally, under a new ONC contract, The Joint Commission will be working to better detect and proactively address potential HIT-related safety issues across a variety of health care settings. More information about the Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan, the ONC-ACB surveillance guide and the new project with The Joint Commission can all be found at the Health IT and Patient Safety webpage.  

Source: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology