ehr onc final certification - Department of Health Care Services

equest for a consultation or a provider referral made by an eligible professional in a
private practice to constitute an order that should be handled functionally through CPOE.
Response. We agree with the commenter that suggested that we narrow our
focus, in order to reduce the burden associated with this certification criterion.
Accordingly, we have removed “provider referrals” from the certification criterion.
Complete EHR and EHR Module developers may include additional orders as they see fit
and as recommended by some commenters, however in order to be certified they must
include at a minimum the three order types (medications, laboratory, and
radiology/imaging) specified in the certification criterion. Many commenters generally
supported these three specified order types and we note that while the final meaningful
use Stage 1 objective focuses on medication orders, we believe that for the purposes of
certification and to equip eligible professionals with a basic set of ordering capabilities, it
is appropriate to continue to maintain these three order types. (This response also applies
to the change we made in the CPOE certification criterion for Complete EHRs or EHR
Modules designed for an inpatient setting). Finally, in further reviewing this certification
criterion in light of comments received, we have also determined that it would be
appropriate and clearer to replace the term “manage” with “modify” to be more
consistent with the terminology used in other certification criteria. We have also made
this change in the CPOE certification criterion for Complete EHRs and EHR Modules
designed for an inpatient setting.
Comment. A commenter stated that the lab industry does not have any standards
for order entry, and even among lab providers, their operating units utilize different
standards. The commenter contended that this lack of consistency in order entry would
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