HIMSS News:
HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)
ASTM International, HIMSS and Massachusetts Medical Society Align to Establish New Continuity of Care Standard BOSTON (May 22, 2003) – The ASTM International, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and Massachusetts Medical Society have joined forces to establish a standard for the Continuity of Care Record (CCR), which will enable healthcare providers to base future care on relevant and timely patient information.
"We want to end the situation where doctors must either start from scratch or act blindly because they don't have the patient's relevant past history, allergies, or the details of medications" said Thomas Sullivan, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the organization initiating the development of the CCR standards.
An ongoing record of care, the CCR should be created or updated at the end of every healthcare encounter and available for review by the next provider, no matter what and where the healthcare setting might be. As a result, that provider would use the CCR to guide the care process for the patient. The patient also may request a CCR printout to provide valid and current information for another healthcare provider.
We'll need to see the details .. but this may be a very good thing … and a no-brainer for the other professional societies to get behind. Perhaps we can bring it up at next weeks' NAPCI meeting
