Certification of Electronic Medical Records

Electronic medical records need certification to ensure better healthcare services and safety while the system is in use. Patients and health care providers need to be assured that the electronic records they are using can maintain data confidentially, work with other systems to share information, perform a set of well-defined functions and are secure. For it to be certified, it needs to meet the ONC (The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) standards. Health care providers then need to know the vendors that are ONC-ATCB (ONC – Authorized Testing and Certifying Bodies) certified or CCHIT (Certification Commission for Health Information Technology) Certified and the products that meet the same criteria. Using electronic health records that are not certified may lead to compromising healthcare services that could be detrimental to patient’s health and well being not to mention the practitioners may not realize the meaningful use of the program and their credibility may be put to question.