CCHIT is Prejudiced and Lacks Diversity – An Indictment Until Proven Otherwise

Searching for “The Lost Medical Providers”

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; FACFAS, MBA, former CPHQ™, CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

Hope Rachel Hetico; RN, MHA, former CPHQ™, CMP™

[Managing Editor]

Right up! Let us state that, sans increased transparency and requested information to the contrary, we believe that CCHIT is a prejudiced and seriously non-diverse outfit. No. we don’t mean racial prejudice or any lacking in ethnic or gender diversity – We mean professional diversity. Why and how did this happen – we don’t know, but please allow us to explain our thought process in arriving at this opinion and formal indictment?

Link: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

CCHIT Website

According to its website, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology [CCHIT] was founded to help physicians answer key questions about eHR software, such as: a) what components should be included, b) where do you begin with over 200 products in the ambulatory eHR market?

Link: http://www.cchit.org/index.asp

Certification Commission Composition

CCHIT is a private nonprofit organization accelerating the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology [HIT] by creating a credible, efficient certification process.

The Commission is made up of at least two representatives each from the provider, payer, and vendor stakeholder groups, and others from stakeholder groups that include safety net providers, health care consumers, public health agencies, quality improvement organizations, clinical researchers, standards development and informatics experts and government agencies.

Currently, CHIT is composed of these commissioners, serving in two-year staggered terms:

• Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD [Chairman]
• Abha Agrawal, MD, FACP
• Steve Arnold, MD, MS, MBA, CPE
• Karen Bell, MD
• Richard Benoit
• Sarah T. Corley, MD, FACP
• John F. Derr, RPh
• Linda Hogan
• Michael L. Kappel
• Joy G. Keeler, MBA, FHIMSS
• Jennifer Laughlin, MBA, RHIA
• Christopher MacManus
• David Merritt
• Susan R. Miller, RN, FACMPE
• James Morrow, MD
• Rick Ratliff
• David A. Ross, ScD
• Don Rucker, MD
• Michael Ubl
• Jon White, MD
• Andrew Wiesenthal, MD

What about the “Others”

Now, here’s the rub; what about the other medical professionals? The list above contains allopathic physicians, a nurse and a pharmacist; and that’s fine. But, where are the DDSs, DPMs, DOs and ODs? Should these folks assume they are included as CCHIT stakeholders, as most all dentists and even the ADA seemingly – and apparently erroneously – believed?

Link: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

See CCHIT’s answer below, when one intrepid [fearless or naïve] dentist inquired about his profession’s inclusion in the CCHIT initiative.

Dr. Pruitt,

“As noted in my email to you, the Commission has not yet taken up the development of certification for software products used in dentistry. While one cannot deny the value of dental information in the management of health, it is not currently within the scope of the Commission’s work to undertake the development of criteria and test scripts that inspect the data compatibility between physician office eHRs and dentistry records. As our work progresses, it may become a future consideration.”

Regards

-S

CCHIT 

Link: http://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/the-case-against-inter-operable-ehrs/#comments

According to our best estimates, CCHIT left out input from these medical professionals:

• Osteopaths: 50,000
• Dentists: 150,000
• Podiatrists: 10,000
• Optometrists: 40,000

And so, we ask, where are the:

”two representatives each from the provider … groups”

 as stated and mandated, in their own CCHIT charter? Where is the outrage from the American Osteopathic Association [AOA], American Podiatric Medical Association [APMA], American Optometric Association [AOA], and the American Dental Association [ADA]? Are these folks disenfranchised; and do they know it, or not?

Link: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Board of Governors – Public Comments Desired

Industry Indignation Index: 65

Hopefully, we can shame – “flame with emails” – CCHIT into finally including dentists, podiatrists, more osteopaths and optometrists in this initiative and in their larger enterprise wide goals, objectives and plans.

Link: http://www.cchit.org/participate/public-comment

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. Please call, write, fax, email or send in your opinions to CCHIT and tell them what you think! Mark, we give you benefit-of-doubt and are on your side, but what did we miss; do tell? What sort of bureaucrat apparently overlooked these full, and limited-licensed, medical practitioners with their special skills; or do they actually have direct-indirect input? Don’t they count for anything? Where is the diversity? Where is the outrage? Stop the prejudice! Call us, let’s do lunch and discuss.

Full disclosure: We are members of AHIMA, HIMSS, MS-HUG and SUNSHINE. We just released the Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security, with Foreword by Chief Medical Information Officer Richard J. Mata; MD MS MS-CIS, of Johns Hopkins University www.HealthDictionarySeries.com, and the second edition of the Business of Medical Practice with Foreword by Ahmad Hashem; MD PhD, who was the Global Productivity Manager for the Microsoft Healthcare Solutions Group at the time: www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com

Additional References

1. Getting “the CCHIT Question” Wrong, by Matthew Holt.

Link: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2009/02/getting-the-cchit-question-wrong.html#comments

2. CCHIT dissolved involuntarily in April 2008 for failure to file annual report in Illinois.

Link: http://www.hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/02/cchit-dissolved-involuntarily-in-april.html

Print Journal: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com  or Bio: www.stpub.com/pubs/authors/MARCINKO.htm

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