The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission has announced the Outsourced Services Accreditation Program for Health Information Exchange Services (OSAP-HIE), which will evaluate outsourced HIE vendors against high standards of quality in handling protected health information.
 
The accreditation program evaluates companies that provide clinical health information exchange technology to HIEs and demonstrates that the HIE vendor meets industry-developed standards of quality in handling protected health information (PHI) with appropriate oversight regarding privacy and security regulations, technical performance, business processes and resource management.

[See also: EHNAC announces 2011 criteria for accreditation programs.]

Officials say the program ensures:


• The secure movement of electronic clinical information among disparate healthcare information systems while maintaining the validity and integrity of the information being exchanged;
• The movement of this data according to nationally recognized standards where applicable; and
• The provision of any such services as MPI, RLS, e-prescribing transactions, lab results delivery, clinical summary document exchange, consent management, usage auditing, system security and performance auditing, and record locator services.

“Outsourcing organizations are playing a vital and growing role in providing the technology capabilities and support to HIEs and other health information organizations, enabling them to deliver the effective clinical data exchange solutions to that community,” says EHNAC Executive Director Lee Barrett. “OSAP-HIE is one of our many outsourced service accreditation programs providing a third-party review of these organizations’ services, allowing them to confidently demonstrate their ability to meet healthcare requirements while allowing for trust and confidence in partnering business organizations.”
 
Through the process of a thorough, objective OSAP-HIE evaluation, organizations in the program will discover ways to improve efficiency, increase stakeholder trust, elevate quality of service, and keep current with marketplace trends, officials say.

[See also: EHNAC develops HIE accreditation program.]

Once an organization is OSAP-HIE accredited by EHNAC, other EHNAC candidates who use that outsourcer will not have to pay for additional site visits to that organization. This effectively streamlines the accreditation process for organizations currently in other EHNAC accreditation programs, yet are looking to outsource one or more of their critical functions.
 
EHNAC hopes to begin beta testing of the new OSAP-HIE accreditation program in the fall and is currently seeking qualified organizations interested in participating as beta testing sites before the OSAP-HIE program’s full launch in Jan. 2012. Companies interested in participating in beta testing should visit ehnac.org to review the draft criteria of the proposed accreditation program and, if interested in participating, contact EHNAC at info@ehnac.org.
 
The draft criteria for the OSAP-HIE program will be available online at ehnac.org for public review. Parties are requested to provide opinions, comments and suggestions of the new program criteria version proposed for adoption. The comment period will last 60 days, and is expected to commence on Sept. 26 and ending on Oct. 26.