ehr onc final certification - Department of Health Care Services

more clearly specify this capability. Our revisions focus on Certified EHR Technology’s
capability to allow certain users (e.g., those with administrator rights) with the ability to
adjust notifications provided for drug-drug and drug-allergy checks (e.g., set the level of
severity for which notifications are presented).
Comment. A commenter stated that use of age as a required data element in this
certification criterion is a problem because drug databases handle age in non-standard
ways. It was also stated that for geriatric patients weight is also considered along with
age.
Response. We agree with this commenter. After considering this comment,
particularly in light of the potentially divergent interpretations of this certification
criterion we noted above, we have removed “age” from the certification criterion. It was
never our intention, as could have been anticipated, to require that Certified EHR
Technology be capable of performing checks that relate type or dosage of drugs to the
patient’s age, or “drug-age checks.”
Comment. A commenter encouraged ONC to add adverse drug events to the
certification criterion and to identify candidate standards for its inclusion to support
meaningful use Stage 2.
Response. We appreciate the suggestion and believe that identifying adverse drug
events is important. Because the final meaningful use Stage 1 requirements under the
Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs do not include such a requirement,
though, we do not believe that it would be appropriate at the present time to add such a
requirement as a condition of certification. This does not preclude Complete EHR or
EHR Module developers from including such functionality.
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