FYI.....
Joseph
*MEDICARE NEWS*
For Immediate release
CMS Office of Media Affairs
September 19, 2005
*CMS DELIVERS ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD SOFTWARE TO PHYSICIAN OFFICES*
*Evaluation Version Of Vista-Office Expected To Improve Quality of
Care And Stem Costs*
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
today released an evaluation version of VistA-Office
Electronic Health Record (Vista-Office), an adaptation
of the Veterans Health Administration electronic health
record (EHR) technology. This version of the technology
will allow for an evaluation of VistA-Office EHR and an
assessment of its effectiveness in private physicians
offices.
The evaluation version will be distributed by qualified
vendors and evaluated for usability, effectiveness,
implementation and potential for what is known as
interoperability, or the ability to communicate,
exchange, and use data with other systems and software.
As a result of this evaluation, software vendors will be
able to further improve the software and develop a
version of VistA-Office EHR that is certified in
accordance with a process recognized by the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“The President has set a national goal for most
Americans to have an electronic health record within a
decade, and CMS is working with providers to make that
happen,” said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D.,
Ph.D. “The release of an evaluation version of
VistA-Office will provide a testing laboratory for
interoperability and will supplement efforts by the
American Health Information Community to establish a
certification criteria and process. When fully
realized, electronic health record software will help
physicians improve health care quality while avoiding
unnecessary costs.”
A certification process will identify standards and
minimum requirements to allow electronic health record
systems to share important data across settings of care
and perform the most important functions of an
electronic health record system while maintaining
privacy and security of data. EHRs that become
certified and that can enable the reporting of quality
measures will support CMS quality improvement goals.
These systems will also help achieve a national goal of
widespread adoption of interoperable EHRs within ten years.
The release will also allow for the evaluation of
VistA-Office EHR in physician offices, with particular
attention to whether and how physician offices can
implement the software effectively. This process will
take place while HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, through the
Community, considers approaches for certifying
interoperability and functional capabilities of
electronic health records systems.
The modified Vista-Office software retains existing
VistA functions of such transactions as order entry,
documentation templates, and clinical reminders, and is
enhanced with other important functions including
physician office patient registration, reporting of
quality measures, and printing/faxing of medication
prescriptions.
The Vista-Office evaluation software is not “free”
software. There is a small fee for obtaining the
software on computer disk, and there will be other fees
an office will need to pay to use the software including
licensing and support fees for the database program and
CPT® codes. The added office staff cost associated with
the implementation of an EHR will also be a part of
the total cost of ownership and will play a part in
physicians' decisions to adopt and test Vista-Office.
In addition, offices will generally need vendor support
for installation, configuration, and maintenance,
similar to support with any other electronic health
record. To address this need, CMS has funded a
Vista-Office Vendor Support Organization, WorldVistA, to
provide training for vendors. The evaluation of these
vendor services is an important objective of the initial
VOE release.
During this initial evaluation period, the software will
be available from qualified vendors. Physicians and
clinics that are interested in participating in the
program as an evaluation site, should visit
_www.vista-office.org_ <http://www.vista-office.org> to
learn more about this opportunity. More information
about the vendor training and a list of qualified
vendors can be found at _www.worldvista.org_
<http://www.worldvista.org>.
For more information, visit the CMS website at:/
//__/_www.cms.hhs.gov/quality.pfqi.asp_//
<http://www.cms.hhs.gov/quality.pfqi.asp>/////./
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