IOM Issues 10 HIT Recommendations for Patient Safety

3. The ONC should work with the private and public sectors to make
comparative user experiences across vendors publicly available.

4. The HHS Secretary should fund a new Health IT Safety
Council to evaluate criteria for assessing and monitoring the safe use of health IT and the use of health IT to enhance safety. This council should operate within an existing voluntary consensus standards organization.

5. All health IT vendors should be required to publicly register and list their products with the ONC, initially beginning with EHRs certified for the meaningful use program.

6. The HHS Secretary should specify the quality and risk management
process requirements that health IT vendors must adopt, with a particular
focus on human factors, safety culture, and usability.

7. The HHS Secretary should establish a mechanism for both
vendors and users to report health IT-related deaths, serious injuries, or unsafe conditions. It should be mandatory for vendors but voluntary, confidential and nonpunitive by users, and ways to encourage reporting should be developed, "such as removing the perceptual, cultural, contractual, legal, and logistical barriers to reporting."