BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Keane, a U.S.-based IT services and healthcare information technology firm, today announced Keane Optimum 3.1 has been inspected by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) and is certified EHR technology, IFR Stage 1 as part of the organization’s Preliminary American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) certification program. Keane’s Optimum is among a small number of health IT technologies in the Hospital Domain category to have completed this preliminary process, which pertains to electronic health records (EHR) and meaningful use.
Keane Optimum has preliminarily met 22 of 22 requirements for hospitals published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Interim Final Rule of January 2010 related to the ARRA. These requirements were revised with the publication of the Final Rule on July 13. Inspection information is available at http://www.cchit.org/products. For the purpose of qualifying products for ARRA incentives, CCHIT anticipates, but has not yet received, accreditation by HHS.
President Obama earmarked $36 billion of the ARRA to modernize healthcare IT systems, an effort to expedite the migration to electronic health records. To qualify for this incentive funding, doctors and hospitals must demonstrate “meaningful use” of the new electronic systems beginning in 2011. Final certification, when it is available, will ensure EHR technology meets federal minimum criteria and standards which will support hospitals in their demonstration of compliance as meaningful users of EHR technology.
