HHS moves toward safer electronic health records.

• Position: EHR - Brief article

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released its strategy for making electronic health records and other health IT safer for patients. The Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan was released for public comment at the end of last year.

At its foundation is the belief that health IT has the potential to greatly improve patient safety. To realize health IT's full potential, however, all interested parties--including the government and private sectors--must recognize that patient safety is a shared responsibility.

The plan's stated goal is to "inspire confidence and trust in health IT and health information exchange," by taking steps to use health IT to make care safer and continuously improve the safety of health IT. It prescribes a list of actions that are organized under three strategies:

* Learn: Increase the quantity and quality of data and...