Part of a new rule published last month by CMS included an attestation measure for eligible hospitals to report completion of an annual, self-assessment of their EHRs using SAFER Guides beginning in 2022. The authors of the SAFER Guides (Drs. Dean Sittig and Hardeep Singh) described the development and rationale underlying the guides in this JAMA Viewpoint.

The CMS rule pertains to only eligible hospitals. There are 9 guides grouped into three areas.

• Foundation Guides: High Priority Practices and Organizational Responsibilities.
• Infrastructure Guides: Contingency Planning, System Configuration, System Interfaces
• Clinical Process Guides: Patient Identification, Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with Decision Support, Test Results Reporting & Follow-up, Clinician Communication

Even though CMS’ rule pertains only to hospitals, practices of any size will find relevant and important guidance in the SAFER checklists – particularly those related to clinical processes such as patient identification, CPOE, test results reporting/follow-up, and communication.

Related articles/websites:
CMS Makes Annual SAFER Guides EHR Self-Assessment a Requirement (Healthcare Innovation)
CMS Measures Inventory Tool (CMS)