DirectTrust, the nonprofit organization supporting use of the Direct communication standard for health data, has formed a group to create an implementation guide to leverage the Direct Standard to send and receive Admission, Discharge, Transfer (ADT) notifications.
The goal of the implementation guide is to identify which existing standards will be used to send notifications that enable receivers to understand and prepare to handle inbound ADT notifications. ADT notifications are a requirement of the CMS patient access and interoperability final rule and a “conditions of participation” for inpatient hospitals, including psychiatric and critical access hospitals.
“In response to the new CMS rule on ADT notifications, the vast majority of leading EHR vendors asked DirectTrust to launch an effort for the community to standardize how these notifications could be sent and received using the Direct Standard, specifically in regard to payload and context,” explained Scott Stuewe, DirectTrust president and CEO, in a statement. “Our goal in creating the Consensus Body is to meet market demand to leverage existing standards, and agree on how they should be used for this type of exchange. We're excited to work with the community to develop an implementation guide for ADT notifications via Direct that enables recipients to use notifications to improve care coordination across the healthcare continuum."
The creation of the Consensus Body is an outcome of DirectTrust’s EHR Roundtable, which is focused on ensuring that Direct Secure Messaging is widely deployed, and implemented to its full capacity to optimize utilization and provide the best possible patient care. The EHR Roundtable is a collaborative effort of 14 vendors that comprise more than 90 percent of the EHR market.
"Our challenge is addressing the lack of standardization of content, the payload, and the format across different hospital vendors, as well as ensuring that on the receiving side the notification gets delivered to the provider for which it was intended, or it fails to meet the goal,” said Tushar Malhotra, director of interoperability strategy and business development at eClinicalWorks, in a statement. “Thanks to Meaningful Use, the adoption of Direct Secure Messaging is widespread. It's substantial enough across the client base, already in their workflow, and already set up, and certainly can be a pathway for notifications."
The first meeting of the Consensus Body for ADT notifications will be held on Wednesday Sept. 2, 2020, from 1:00-2:00pm EDT. For more information and to apply for participation, contact [email protected].
