EHRs Lack Standards, Best Practices

A report raises growing concerns that electronic health record products are being developed without specific best practices and design standards related to EHR product use in a healthcare setting.

To overcome this difficulty, many vendors support an independent body guiding development of voluntary usability standards for EHRs, the study found. The Electronic Health Record Usability Vendor Practices and Perspectives report was published this month by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The study, which was conducted by James Bell Associates and the Altarum Institute on behalf of AHRQ, interviewed vendors of ambulatory EHR products that came on the market during the mid-1990s to 2007. The study's objective was to examine vendors' processes and practices with regard to: the existence and use of standards and "best practices" in designing, developing, and deploying products; testing and evaluating usability throughout the product life cycle; and supporting post-deployment monitoring to ensure patient safety and effective use. The adoption of EHRs is a cornerstone of President Obama's healthcare reform strategy, with billions of dollars earmarked in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund a new healthcare IT infrastructure. The adoption of EHR technology is pivotal to that strategy, with the government declaring that its goal is to provide every citizen with an electronic health record by 2014.