With ongoing provider concerns about electronic health record (EHR) functionality and usability, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has launched an online complaint form designed to address these concerns.
The online form, http://www.healthit.gov/healthitcomplaints, enables users to report complaints with certified health IT products, such as EHRs, or problems with sharing electronic health information.
“We know that as more and more providers – and individuals – are using health IT, they are bound to experience challenges with the technology,” Acting Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Jon White, MD, wrote on the ONC website.
ONC encouragers users who have problems with health IT products to first contact the product’s developer or vendor, or, if the issue relates to the product’s certified capability, then one of the ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies (ACB) should be contacted to help resolve the issue.
“If the issue remains unresolved, please submit your issues to ONC,” White wrote.
Specific issues ONC wants to hear about are challenges related to health information blocking, or when someone interferes with the exchange or use of health information or challenges related to the ability for EHRs to share or receive health information as well as concerns about the usability of an EHR, according to White.
Providers also are encouraged to contact ONC if they have concerns about the safety of IT health products or if the certified capabilities of an EHR or other IT health product has not performed as expected.
Comments submitted through the online form will be reviewed by ONC staff. The new complain tool will help ONC “better understand the extent and nature of potential problems to more accurately represent them to Congress and other federal partners and work with them to develop solutions,” White wrote.
“Our goal is a more centralized and streamlined customer service process that will help us aid our understanding of key challenges—including potential ways to address information blocking and improve the security, safety, and usability of health IT,” White wrote.
