ONC Issues New Guidance For More Reliable EHRs

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT hopes to make electronic health records safer through a new suite of checklists and recommended practices designed to help care providers and affiliated organizations optimize EHR safety. 

ONC officials say the checklists, Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER), are an important component of the Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan issued by the Department of Health and Human Services this past July.

"A basic premise of the Health IT Safety Plan is that all stakeholders have a shared responsibility to make sure that health IT is safely implemented and that it is used to improve patient safety and care," said Jacob Reider, MD, chief medical officer at ONC, in a press statement.

"The SAFER Guides combine the latest applied knowledge of health IT safety with practical tools that will help providers – working closely with EHR developers, diagnostic service providers and others – effectively assess and optimize the safety and safe use of EHR technology within their organizations," Reider said.