EHR Certification Consulting

Computer mother board with stethoscope representing EHR certification consulting.

EHR System Vendors – A Crowded Field is Facing new challenges - Stage 2 Certification Criteria

The Fox Group's EHR certification consulting services may be just what your Health-Tech Company needs to gain a competetive edge.

Consider the following ...

The HITECH Act incentives for eligible professionals and hospitals to adopt an electronic health record system and adhere to the government’s meaningful use criteria have resulted in at least some of the intended consequences – a great many physicians and hospitals have selected and implemented an EHR system for their organization. Most of these systems were certified under the 2011 Certification Criteria.  EHR system vendors have since needed to evaluate and react to the 2014 Certification Criteria for Stage 2 Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT), and many have found it to be very challenging.

EHR development & certification consulting

"Let The Fox Group help you deliver a marketable product in this competitive field."


The 50 Stage 2 CEHRT criteria are a mix of unchanged criteria, criteria that have minor refinements or are revised, and criteria that are new.  The ONC also introduced the concept of a "Base EHR", a list of criteria any system must meet to be considered minimally certified under the Stage 2 CEHRT requirements.

Some of the Stage 2 criteria raise the bar in significant ways, for instance:
EHR development and certification consulting

  • Requiring specific vocabularies for some functions,
  • Requiring linked referential clinical decision support with source attributes, and
  • Requiring an HL-7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval Standard to identify patient-specific education resources.

Vendors must also apply user-centered design methodologies to the development of 8 specific capabilities and identify a quality management system used in developing the software.

EHR System Certification and Design Consultation

The Fox Group can offer the perspective of potential EHR users who are interested in the extensive functionality of a system, as well as attaining meaningful use and qualifying for Stage 2 Meaningful Use incentives. As a vendor, you can make use of our expertise to get assistance in certifying your EHR software. The Fox Group can ...

  • help you interpret the EHR technology certification criteria;
  • help you understand how and what users will have to do to meet the Meaningful Use criteria;
  • help you understand and incorporate ways to address compliance issues in an EHR system;
  • organize focus groups that can provide practical feedback on user experience;
  • ... and more.

EHR Certification and Design MazeTo get an idea of what a well-prepared medical group would be using when requesting a demonstration of an EHR system, download a copy of our EHR & Practice Management Vendor Demonstration Checklist. This checklist also covers the Core and Menu Set Meaningful Use Objectives. As an EHR vendor, you must be able to demonstrate all of the health record items. And a comprehensive EHR and Practice Management system should be able to demonstrate all of the items.

You can also download a copy of our latest ONC Certified EHR Technology Testing Criteria Handout, which summarizes the changes between the 2011 certification criteria and the 2014 certification criteria.

A functional, user-friendly EHR system is no accident. Let The Fox Group help you deliver a marketable product in this competitive field.

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