Product EHR BH FP

Product Brief - HL7 EHR Behavioral Health Functional Profile (EHR BH FP)

Electronic Health Record Systems - Behavioral Health Functional Profile

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Product Name

Electronic Health Record Systems - Behavioral Health Functional Profile (EHR BH FP)

Standard Category

Application Functional Specifications

Type

Normative, ANSI Standard

Releases

• ANSI/HL7 EHR BHFP, R1-2008

Summary

The healthcare industry will reap tremendous benefits by adopting a common standard for electronic health record systems (EHR-S). The HL7 EHR-S Functional Model outlines important features and functions that should be contained in an EHR system. Through the creation of functional profiles, this model provides a standard description and common understanding of functions for healthcare settings. To date, HL7 has developed or is developing profiles for areas such as child health, emergency care, long term care, behavioral health and vital statistic reporting. The EHR-S Functional Model is also in the final stages of vetting as an international standard through ISO.

Description

In February 2007, the HL7 Electronic Record Health System Functional Model (EHR-S FM) became the healthcare industry’s first ANSI-approved standard that specifies the functional requirements for an electronic health record system (EHR-S). The standard has received broad industry input from more than a thousand clinicians, as well as from EHR vendors, payers, researchers, and others across the industry. The EHR-S FM outlines important features and functions that should be contained in an EHR system. The standard’s Functional Model contains approximately 1,000 conformance criteria across 130 functions, including medication history, problem lists, orders, clinical decision support, and those supporting privacy and security. The functions are described from a user perspective and enable consistent expression of EHR system functionality, while the conformance criteria serves as a reference for purchasers of EHR systems and vendors developing EHR software.

To date, a number of profiles have been developed.

• The Behavioral Health Functional Profile can be used by treatment provider organizations to select or build their own EHR systems; EHR software developers to guide their future product development efforts; certification organizations to certify EHR software; and healthcare payers as part of their criteria for pay-for-performance and other incentives. It also became an ANSI-approved standard in December 2008.

For those thinking about creating a profile, the How to Guide for Creating Functional Profiles is available on the Work Group’s Functional Profile webpage (www.Hl7.org/ehr). In addition, the HL7 EHR Work Group is available to provide further guidance.

Any functional profile that conforms to the EHR System Functional Model standard can be registered with HL7. This registration involves self-attestation of conformance by those submitting the functional profile for registration via a questionnaire that is completed at submission time. Registration can facilitate the adoption of the profile by making it publicly available for use. All registered profiles are available to the public through a searchable registry at: http://www.nist.gov/profileregistry.

Resources

• For more information on the EHR-S FM and the HL7 Electronic Health Records Work Group, please visit: www.HL7.org/ehr.

Work Groups

• EHR WG

Education

• See more at http://www.hl7.org/implement/training.cfm

Certification Available

• none

Presentations

From HIMSS 2009

• EHR-S FM and Standard
• Advanced EHR-S FM and Standard: Profiles Against the EHR & PHR S FM