Press Release Details
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Lisa DeMoss
Director, Marketing and Communications
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ldemoss@spheris.com
For Immediate Release
Setting the Standards: Spheris Joins CDA4CDT
Program Designed to Create Industry-wide Standards for Interoperability in Clinical Documentation
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — April 09, 2007 — Spheris and other leading clinical documentation providers have joined an industry-wide effort to establish clear standards and specifications for clinical documentation. The project, called Clinical Documentation Architecture for Common Document Types (CDA4CDT), is designed to create universal guidelines and templates for the most common types of dictated clinical documentation.Establishing industry standards will help ensure the interoperability of Health Information Management (HIM) systems and the effective exchange of data between healthcare providers. As described in a recent press release from CDA4CDT, the project was initiated by the American Health Data Institute (AHDI), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and M*Modal, and is being managed by Alschuler Associates, LLC.
Spheris has signed on as a benefactor and key contributor to CDA4CDT. As a global clinical documentation technology and service provider working with over 500 healthcare facilities, Spheris offers critical insight into the needs, capabilities and limitations of healthcare providers of all sizes, from physician group practices to hospitals and national health system enterprises. Spheris is able to review and analyze thousands of clinical documents and provide abstract findings to CDA4CDT in order to guide the group's efforts.
Dr. Christopher Rehm, chief medical officer for Spheris, serves on the CDA4CDT committee responsible for providing strategic direction for the project. "In order to achieve industry-wide adoption, the guidelines and standards we establish must take into account the broadly divergent technologies and processes already in place at American healthcare facilities," said Dr. Rehm. "Compliance with the new standards must be virtually painless. With our extensive client base and expertise, Spheris gives healthcare providers a clear voice in the CDA4CDT project."
As a first step in the process of creating documentation standards, CDA4CDT is currently developing an "Implementation Guide" for history and physical reports. The guide will be compatible and consistent with existing standards, such as Clinical Document Architecture (CDA), Continuity of Care Document (CCD) and Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC), already adopted by some healthcare facilities. All standards proposed by CDA4CDT will be processed by the Structured Documents Technical Committee of Health Level Seven (HL7) according to HL7 consensus building and ballot procedures, and HL7 will hold the copyright to the approved standards. Balloting for the history and physical reports is presently underway.
"By working with the industry to facilitate broad acceptance of the standards, CDA4CDT will complement HL7's efforts to promote those standards to ANSI for approval as American National Standards," said Chuck Meyer, chairman of the HL7 board of directors. "I am encouraged by the degree of participation by companies like Spheris in the CDA4CDT program, the positive momentum achieved thus far, and the opportunity it provides for HL7 to extend the use of the Clinical Data Architecture in the healthcare enterprise."
Healthcare providers who comply with industry standards are able to share information effectively and efficiently, which has the potential to reduce delays in patient care, prevent redundant care and reduce hospital costs. Without industry standards, providers run the risk of slow, and potentially inaccurate, electronic communication between facilities. Healthcare facilities that elect not to adopt industry standards may discover that upgrading or replacing non-compliant technologies can be an expensive prospect.
Todd Charest, vice president of product management for Spheris, serves on the CDA4CDT committee responsible for crafting clinical documentation templates. "The standards we're developing must be rigid enough to ensure the interoperability of various technologies from different vendors at healthcare facilities throughout the nation," explained Charest, "but they must also be flexible enough to accommodate the wide range of work habits and processes already in place for dictation and clinical documentation."
"We are moving rapidly toward providing massive amounts of clinical information in a format that is immediately useful for the nascent health information exchanges,' said Liora Alschuler, project manager for CDA4CDT. ”The dedication and cooperation we've seen from Spheris and other clinical documentation providers has been key to the rapid progress of this project thus far."
Healthcare facilities that comply with CDA4CDT's HL7-Approved standards for how data is recorded, organized and tagged will also simplify the adoption of the Electronic Health Record (EHR), a slow but vital process currently underway in the healthcare industry.
"Spheris is on the leading edge of document creation and data sharing with EHR," said Charest. "Portability and interoperability are critical to the process. Developing industry standards for clinical documentation allows us to break down some of the barriers to EHR adoption."
"Our mission is to maximize the value of data within an electronic file," added Dr. Rehm. "We want data that is immediately recognized and shared in a secure, HIPAA-ready environment between healthcare facilities no matter what technologies are involved."
About Spheris Spheris is a leading provider of clinical documentation services and technology to health systems, hospitals and group practices throughout the U.S. Founded by physicians in 1993, Spheris employs a global network of medical language specialists for true 24-hour service, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The proprietary Spheris Clarity™ technology platform integrates the full range of clinical documentation software and hardware into one seamless, customizable system, including embedded speech recognition technologies. The Spheris solution is flexible and scalable to balance the needs of HIM directors, CFOs, IT directors and physicians with an emphasis on verifiable quality, turnaround time, security and pricing. Spheris' worldwide corporate headquarters is located in Franklin, Tenn. For more information, please visit www.spheris.com.