Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Requirements for Enhancing Data Quality in EHR Systems

The US Department of Health and Human Services has published a document titled Recommended Requirements for Enhancing Data Quality in Electronic Health Record Systems (EHR-S). The primary purpose of the project was "to identify requirements for EHR-S that can help enhance data protections, such as increased data validity, accuracy and integrity including appropriate fraud management which would prevend fraud from occuring, as well as detect fraud both prospectively and retrospectively."

The fourteen recommended functional requirements include:

Requirement 1: Audit Functions and Features
Requirement 2: Provider Identification
Requirement 3: User Access Authentication
Requirement 4: Documentation Process Issues
Requirement 5: Evaluation and Management (E&M) Coding
Requirement 6: Proxy Authorship
Requirement 7: Record Modification after Signature
Requirement 8: Auditor Access to Patient Record
Requirement 9: EHR Traceability
Requirement 10: Patient Involvement in Anti-Fraud
Requirement 11: Patient Identify-Proofing
Requirement 12: Structured and Coded Data
Requirement 13: Integrity of EHR Transmission
Requirement 14: Accurate Linkage of Claims to Clinical Records

All of these requirements are integral to managing the risks associated with EHRs. A very useful piece of work!

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