The final plan addresses recommendations from the Institute of Medicine’s 2011 report, “Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care,” and public comments, according to the news release. Here are four key responsibilities outlined in the HIT safety plan, according to the release:
• The Office of National Coordinator for Health IT will make it easier for clinicians to report HIT-related incidents and hazards through certified electronic health records.
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will encourage reporting to patient safety organizations and will update its standardized reporting forms to enable ambulatory reporting of HIT events.
• CMS will encourage the use of the standardized reporting forms in hospital incident reporting systems and train surveyors to identify safe and unsafe practices associated with HIT.
• ONC will develop priorities for improving the safety of HIT. ONC and CMS will consider safety-related measures for EHRs.
Coinciding with the release of the plan, ONC has issued guidance stating that ONC-authorized certification bodies will need to confirm that safety-related capabilities perform correctly in the intended clinical settings, according to the release.
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