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Welcome to SaferEHR.org!

SaferEHR is an implementation of a semantic wiki that allows informaticists to collaboratively create EHR assessment tools to create a SAFER EHR. It was started by Dean F. Sittig, Ph.D. on March 1, 2012. It is the main collaboration site of the SAFER: Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience project.

Disclaimer

The materials on this wiki were prepared under the sponsorship of an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

Likewise, the above also applies to the SAFER project team (including The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Oregon Health & Science University, Baylor College of Medicine, The Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and their affiliated entities) and Westat.

Example EHR Assessment Tools:

General EHRs in Large Practice Settings:

• "Read-only" EHR system tested on a weekly basis
• "Read-only" backup EHR system
• "Reason for referral" field is required
• "Unit-level" read-only backup EHR system connected to local UPS
• 2-way interfaces to ancillary clinical systems
• Abbreviations Spelled Out
• Abnormal tests are flagged
• Access to "read-only" backup EHR disabled during normal EHR operations
• Access to Reference Information
• Alert responses are measured, monitored, and reported
• Alerts if mismatch between antimicrobial prescribed and micro-organism susceptibility
• Audit logs are maintained
• Back up all patient data
• Backup Electrical Generator
• Check for allergies
• Clinicians are trained on how and when to activate "read-only" backup
• Clinicians can View, Edit, and Use a patient list
• Clinicians trained in downtime and re-activation procedures
• Clinicians trained in use of paper-based ordering and charting tools
• Close the loop on all communication
• … further results

All items in the Human-Computer Interface dimension:

• "Reason for referral" field is required
• Abbreviations Spelled Out
• Abnormal tests are flagged
• Access to "read-only" backup EHR disabled during normal EHR operations
• Access to Reference Information
• Check for allergies
• Clinicians can View, Edit, and Use a patient list
• EHR limits the number of patient records displayed on the same computer to ONE
• Information available on one screen
• Look-alike or sound-alike warnings
• No horizontal scrolling
• One patient per screen
• Patient ID displayed
• Print from the read-only EHR system
• TALLman lettering
• Tools to trend lab data
• User interface of the read-only backup EHR system is visibly different
• Users warned when patient name is the same as another patient
• Warn on similar patient names

All items created to date:

• "Read-only" EHR system tested on a weekly basis
• "Read-only" backup EHR system
• "Reason for referral" field is required
• "Unit-level" read-only backup EHR system connected to local UPS
• 2-way interfaces to ancillary clinical systems
• Abbreviations Spelled Out
• Abnormal tests are flagged
• Access to "read-only" backup EHR disabled during normal EHR operations
• Access to Reference Information
• Alert responses are measured, monitored, and reported
• Alerts if mismatch between antimicrobial prescribed and micro-organism susceptibility
• Audit logs are maintained
• Back up all patient data
• Backup Electrical Generator
• Check for allergies
• Clinicians are trained on how and when to activate "read-only" backup
• Clinicians can View, Edit, and Use a patient list
• Clinicians trained in downtime and re-activation procedures
• Clinicians trained in use of paper-based ordering and charting tools
• Close the loop on all communication
• … further results