Defective Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Resolved Section(s):
RESOLVED: That our AMA work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) or seek federal legislation so that physicians can improve patient care and possibly reduce costs by requiring the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to verify that the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) certified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and offered for sale to physicians offer:A. User friendly functions to facilitate, not hinder, the work of clinicians and healthcare workersB. Modular architectures with interfaces that allow extension of product capabilitiesC. Innovative use of data, bundled, best-of-breed, interoperable, substitutable technologies that can be optimized for use in health care improvementD. Transferable or readily retrievable health data stored in other health information technology systems worldwide, subject to patient consentE. User interfaces similar enough that a clinician working in one health system can intuitively discern how to use another without extensive retrainingF. The ability to perform all HHS requirements for: efficient patient care, payment for meaningful use, encryption and other safeguards to meet HIPAA standards, and prevention of medical record breachesG. Protections to physicians from meaningful use and electronic breach penalties that occur as a result of technical failuresAn information backbone for accountable care, patient safety and health care reform.