A special task force created by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology to provide guidance on the development of certification for long-term and post-acute care electronic health records has recommended "a strong focus" on the EHR technology requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The CCHIT's Long Term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC) advisory task force has identified core certification criteria for EHR certification in skilled nursing and nursing facilities, Medicare certified home health agencies, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term acute care hospitals.

Recommendations include re-using or adapting existing criteria from other CCHIT certification programs, identifying additional criteria specific to each care setting and including a roadmap indicating when the criteria are expected to be implemented.

"Long-term and post-acute care is a growing and important healthcare segment," said John Derr, senior vice president and chief technology strategic officer for Golden Living, LLC, and a co-chairman of the task force.

"The four priority care settings are just the beginning. The patients and residents under LTPAC care transition between many care settings depending upon their clinical requirements," Derr said. "The task force began this process with a priority-setting process for all care settings. Criteria will be developed for other care settings like assisted living, independent care and hospice after the initial four are completed."

"We look forward to working with the commission and the Office of the National Coordinator in implementing a standardized and certified electronic health record for LTPAC," he added.

The task force, which includes representatives from skilled nursing facility, assisted living, home care, hospice, health information technology, government and consumer organizations, will provide input on EHR certification to the LTPAC.

The LTPAC will combine these recommendations with other CCHIT recommendations on its scope of work and begin to develop criteria for the certification of LTPAC EHRs at its first meeting on July 15-16.

According to CCHIT officials, EHR certification for skilled nursing facilities and certified home health care is expected to be available in 2010 during a phased rollout of the CCHIT's newly developed 2011-2012 ARRA EHR certification programs.