Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care, Version 5.5 and Sunrise Emergency Care Version 5.5 have been certified as Complete Electronic Health Records for 2011/2012 by the federal government's Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, the company announced this week.
"CCHIT is pleased to be testing and certifying products so that companies are now able to offer these products to providers who wish to purchase and implement certified EHR technology and achieve meaningful use in time for the 2011-2012 incentives," CCHIT Chair Karen M. Bell, MD, said in a media release issued by Allscripts.
The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Additionally, Sunrise Acute Care Modular Version 5.5, Sunrise Emergency Care Modular Version 5.5, Sunrise Ambulatory Modular Version 5.5, and Sunrise Patient Portal Version 5.5 are all CCHIT 2011/2012 compliant and were also certified as EHR Modules on Dec. 21 by CCHIT.
"Certification of our Sunrise Acute Care, Emergency Department and Ambulatory Electronic Health Records is an important milestone for the company as it marks the completion of ARRA certification for our full portfolio of ambulatory and acute EHRs, a commitment we made to our clients," said Glen Tullman, CEO of Chicago-based Allscripts.
Allscripts said it submitted Sunrise Acute Care and Emergency Care for certification as both a Complete and Modular EHR to accommodate hospitals that prefer to keep an existing third-party analytic system. Hospitals can either use the Sunrise Clinical Analytics embedded within Sunrise Acute Care or Sunrise Emergency Care to demonstrate the quality measure reporting requirement of Meaningful Use, or choose to integrate their third-party system to with Sunrise Acute Care Modular to satisfy the requirement.
That third-party reporting system, however, will be required under ARRA rules to be ARRA-certified as an EHR module, otherwise the hospital will have to certify the reporting module themselves - a time-consuming and expensive process, Allscripts said.
Three clinical components of Allscripts Sunrise 5.5 EHR were certified by CCHIT in July. Those components included: Sunrise Clinical Manager 2011 Suite, Version 5.5, Sunrise Ambulatory Care 2011 Suite, Version 5.5 and Sunrise Emergency Care 2011 Suite, Version 5.5.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Authorized Testing and Certification Body 2011/2012 certification program certifies that Complete EHRs meet all of the 2011/2012 criteria and EHR Modules meet one or more – but not all – of the criteria approved by HHS for either eligible provider or hospital technology.
Companies offering ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certified EHR modules may return to test additional criteria and certify their products as Complete EHRs later.
CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced that registration will begin January 3, 2011, for eligible providers hoping to participate in the Medicare EHR incentive program.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.