EHR Standards and Interoperability

Standards within an electronic health record (EHR) are the necessary building blocks to interoperability. Interoperability is necessary for one system to communicate with another which is one of the main goals of having an EHR. As it stands, most EHR vendors recognize the importance of interoperability and will have to build in and maintain or update these standards as they change to remain competitive. Make sure your EHR vendor has a plan, because as you can see from this excerpt, things will be changing...

WASHINGTON – The federal advisory panel on health IT standards has approved refined recommendations on how providers may electronically record a physician's observations to qualify for federal recovery bonuses.
The HIT Standards Committee endorsed recommendations to call for SNOMED CT for physician's clinical observations by 2015. In 2010, providers must use ICD-9 or SNOMED CT to qualify, and in 2013 they must use ICD-10 or SNOMED CT.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/snomed-ct-will-be-required-2015-bonuses-under-economic-recovery-law