ICSA Labs Rolls Out Electronic Health Record Testing Program, Certifies First Three Products

MECHANICSBURG, Pa., March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon, has unveiled a new certification program for electronic health record systems and has certified the first three products in two domains -- ambulatory and inpatient -- under the program.

ICSA Labs, which has been designated as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, certified the following products as Ambulatory EHR Modules:  

• Design Clinicals MedsTracker version 5.0.
• Colonial Valley Software Lectronic Practice Suite version 2.02.0.1.
• OEMR OpenEMR 4.  

Design Clinicals MedsTracker version 5.0 also earned the Inpatient EHR Module Certification.

The federal government, under the Department of Health and Human Services, requires the "meaningful" use of electronic health record systems to improve health care coordination, boost quality of care for patients and their families, and raise privacy and security of records.

The new program from ICSA Labs is aimed at providing verification that the EHR technology health care organizations adopt is technically capable of supporting their efforts to achieve meaningful use and helping health care organizations safeguard sensitive and private patient information contained within electronic records. As part of its rigorous testing, ICSA Labs verifies that complete EHR solutions meet all of the government's requirements.

The company is also testing modular solutions that are only required to meet a subset of the government's requirements and are generally targeted at specific functions, such as prescribing, scheduling and reporting applications.

"This year we are expanding our certification programs into health IT, a much-needed area of focus, to help modernize today's health care system," said George Japak, managing director for ICSA Labs.  "With our new focus on safeguarding patient information within electronic health records, we are committed to helping accelerate the adoption of health IT."

In December 2010, ICSA Labs announced it had earned its designation as an Authorized Testing and Certified Body by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To learn more or enter a product into the testing process, visit ICSA Labs' Electronic Health Record Testing and Certification page.

About ICSA Labs

ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon, offers third-party testing and certification of security products and network-connected devices, such as printers and faxes, to measure product compliance, reliability and performance to many of the world's top security vendors. Visit http://www.icsalabs.com and http://www.icsalabs.com/blogs for more information

About Verizon

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving 94.1 million customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 194,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

SOURCE ICSA Labs