ICSA Labs Certifies First Hospital Under Its Electronic Health Record Testing Program

At the HIMSS Conference on Tuesday (Feb. 21), ICSA Labs announced its first certification of an IT system that is currently deployed by a hospital.  The hospital, Via Christi Health, earned the certification under ICSA Labs' electronic health record program.  Previous certifications had been limited to commercial off-the-shelf and open-source solutions.

Via Christi Health, which provides a network of health care services via hospitals, doctors, specialty clinics and senior centers in Wichita and south central Kansas, demonstrated that its custom software is compliant with standards set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for electronic health records.  This certification from ICSA Labs demonstrates that Via Christi Health's software follows patient-care best practices and enables the secure exchange of patient records.

Via Christi Health uses its internally developed health IT software to help manage patient records throughout its facilities. In preparing to earn its ONC certification, Via Christi Health had to decide whether to invest in new software that was already certified or to certify and use the custom software the hospital system already had in place.

"Certifying our own software not only proved more cost effective for Via Christi Health, it was significantly less disruptive for our doctors and caregivers," said Dave Gestenslager, application architecture manager, Via Christi Health. "Instead of asking our doctors to switch to a new solution, our physicians were able to continue to use software with which they were already familiar. This enabled them to focus on delivering excellent patient care, instead of learning new technology."

Amit Trivedi, health care program manager, ICSA Labs, said: "By certifying its own software versus transitioning to new software, Via Christi Health is a great example of how certification for electronic health records promotes technology use in a meaningful way to allow for better economics and improved access to patient information.  The testing of custom EHR solutions for eligible providers and hospitals like Via Christi Health enables physicians and staff to effectively use certified health technology."

ICSA Labs is designated as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and is authorized to test complete EHR solutions as well as modular ones that address a specific IT function.  To learn more or enter a product into the testing process, visit ICSA Labs' Electronic Health Record Testing and Certification page.

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About ICSA Labs
ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon, offers third-party testing and certification of security and health IT products, as well as network-connected devices, to measure product compliance, reliability and performance for many of the world's top security vendors.  ICSA Labs is an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited and 9001:2008 registered organization. Visit http://www.icsalabs.com and http://www.icsalabs.com/blogs for more information.

About Via Christi Health
Via Christi Health, a Catholic-sponsored ministry affiliated with Marian Health System and Ascension Health, is the largest provider of health care services in Kansas. Via Christi employs more than 10,000 in its hospitals, senior villages, physician offices and health services. In fiscal year 2011, it provided more than $82 million in community benefit to those it serves, including the poor. Visit viachristi.org.

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 consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 109 million total connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 194,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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