NQF endorses national technology standards

The National Quality Forum has endorsed a group of nine health IT standards under its new national voluntary consensus program. The standards address electronic prescribing, EMR interoperability, care management, quality registries and the medical home. Details include the following:

* E-prescribing: The two e-prescribing measures encourage adoption of either a standalone e-prescribing tool for providers without EMRs, or enhanced use of e-prescribing within an EMR.

* Interoperable EMRs: NQF has two standards for EMRs, one of which measures adoption of an EMR to manage clinical data within a practice, and the second measuring receipt of external data within an EMR.

* Care management: The NQF standards measure the use of HIT to identify specific patients in need of care, track preferences and lab results, and help the clinician in providing evidence-based care.

The standards are intended to help reduce medical errors by increasing clinicians' access to medical information. For example, the standards are intended to improve response times to abnormal lab results, eliminate repetitive testing and and provide decision-support tools to foster the use of evidence-based care.

To learn more about the standards:
- read this NQF press release