Pew Charitable Trusts penned a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell urging ONC and CMS to revise EHR certification requirements to include documentation of unique device identifiers attached to medical devices.
Doing so would help improve patient safety and care quality for patients who receive implanted medical devices, according to the letter.
By incorporating UDIs into EHRs, hospitals could facilitate better recall resolution and adverse event reports, boost clinical decision support and care coordination, support patient engagement and enrich device performance analysis, according to the letter.
In addition to UDI tracking as a criterion for EHR certification, Pew suggested utilizing a UDI field in an EHR platform at the time of device implementation should be a requirement for meaningful use.
"The new UDI system will allow physicians and patients to know which devices are implanted and used in care," reads the letter. "This new system has the potential to facilitate recalls, improve clinical decision support and enhance the data available on medical device performance. The development of certification criteria and a meaningful use objective to support UDI capture are critical next steps to achieve those benefits."
More articles on EHRs:
Hospitals: Why are you surprised nobody wants to use your patient portal?
The problem with EHRs: 5 complaints from CIOs
Do scribes help or hinder EHR efficiency?