MEDHOST’s Adherence to EHR Developer Code of Conduct

In 1999, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued its landmark report “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” on medical errors. The report stated that between 44,000 to 98,000 of people die each year as a result of preventable medical errors.

The report went on to make several recommendations about the adoption and use of EHR technologies to help reduce these numbers. In 2009, the HITECH Act authorized governmental agencies such as The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to create programs that would promote an accelerated adoption of EHR technology across the healthcare industry. During the past seven years, the healthcare industry has seen EHR adoption rates skyrocket. It is making gains in improved outcomes, higher care quality and the containment of healthcare costs.

According to ONC, basic EHR technology adoption rates which vary by facility type are below:¹

• Critical access hospitals increased from 20 percent in 2011 to 80 percent in 2015;
• Rural hospitals increased from 22 percent in 2011 to 80 percent in 2015; and
• Small hospitals increased from 22 percent in 2011 to 81 percent in 2015.

However, this transition has presented challenges. Also, several pain points have been uncovered as the industry shifted into the era of electronic healthcare records.  Multiple concerns have been voiced about the possible negative impact on the clinician's workflow, including instances where EHRs may have actually placed patients at risk or brought harm to patients.

MEDHOST understands that its products are not used in isolation and they are part of a larger sociotechnical system. Especially, which includes clinicians and patients, organizations, processes and other external forces.

In an effort to mitigate the risks to patients which may stem from the adoption of EHRs, MEDHOST is committed to development practices that produce safe and reliable EHR functionality. MEDHOST supports the Electronic Health Record Association's (EHRA) EHR Developer Code of Conduct, which states our commitment to rigorous usability testing of software to verify patient safety, usability, interoperability, data portability, clinical and billing documentation, privacy and security and patient engagement.

Interested in usability testing with MEDHOST?
Contact your Account Manager for more details.

MEDHOST has established both formative and summative testing methodologies in its Patient Safety User Centered Design program. During the planning phase key stakeholders and a panel of clinical experts are engaged to review proposed designs and walk through clinical workflows to look for negative impacts from proposed changes or the introduction of new features. Especially, MEDHOST has regular check points, where a review of the developing feature functionality completes. Also, assessed, allowing for additional stakeholders and subject matter experts to be engaged.

Once the feature development is completed, MEDHOST employs a summative testing exercise in accordance with NISTR 7741 Guide to the Processes Approach for Improving the Usability of Electronic Health Records, by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). End users are tasked to complete test scenarios that reflect real world workflows. Established metrics and observations are recorded for analysis and summative test findings are published on the ONC CHPL (Certified HealthIT Product List).

MEDHOST is actively engaged in identifying partners to work with for usability testing. Testers will have the opportunity to work directly with a test administrator to provide feedback on the latest product features. If you or your organization is interested, contact your Account Manager for more details.

¹http://dashboard.healthit.gov/evaluations/data-briefs/non-federal-acute-care-hospital-ehr-adoption-2008-2015.php