Last week, officials at the Drummond Group announced that the company would apply for authorization from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to test and certify electronic health record systems, Healthcare IT News reports. The Drummond Group is an Austin, Texas-based interoperability test lab.
Company officials said the decision came after they conducted a "thorough review" of the notice of proposed rulemaking on EHR certification.
In a blog posting, the officials said, "Receiving the HHS requirements to become an authorized EHR testing and certification body was the missing piece in our decision to move forward," adding, "Now that we have that piece, we feel confident in announcing our intention to formally apply."
The officials said they found the recent notice of proposed rulemaking "sound, reasonable and a big step forward for formal testing and certification criteria to support health IT" (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 3/12).