White Paper: Advancing The EHR With Enterprise Forms Management And Enterprise Content + Document Management

At the time of writing, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has yet to define a regulatory body or process for certifying electronic health records (EHR) vendors or the modules they provide. This has led some hospitals to shelve their technology purchases until such information becomes available, as some CIOs fear that the software they buy now may not qualify for funding or reimbursement under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

This position is understandable and caution is advisable before making any major healthcare IT purchase. However, such a stance overlooks several key factors. First, any software a hospital buys now can be eligible for HHS certification later. An organization will not exclude itself from certification and the accompanying funding because it purchases before standards have been set.

Second, there are initiatives outside of meaningful use to consider now, before HHS's guidelines for technology are defined. The primary goal for any healthcare organization should be to provide patients with optimal care and service within a safe, error-free environment. A secondary goal is to keep operating and environmental costs to a minimum. Both of these aims are supported by technology that is available currently, namely the combination of an enterprise forms management system (EFM) and enterprise content/ document management system (ECM or EDM).