The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) recently selected the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for a second three-year term as the ONC-Approved Accreditor (ONC-AA) for theONC Health Information Technology (HIT) Certification Program.

The program was once known as the Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology. The ONC-AA accredits all certification bodies involved with the program.

ANSI assesses applicant certification bodies against requirements from ISO/IEC Guide 65: General requirements for bodies operating product certification systems.

ANSI president and CEO Joe Bhatia said, “ANSI is very pleased to have been chosen once again as the ONC-Approved Accreditor under the HIT Certification Program. This selection followed a rigorous, competitive evaluation process, and it speaks to the first-rate quality of the Institute’s accreditation programs. This is one of many instances where government bodies have chosen to rely on ANSI accreditation to demonstrate value and assure competency for important national priorities.”

“Accreditation by ANSI creates a valuable attribute for certification bodies,” added Reinaldo Figueiredo, ANSI senior program director for product and process accreditation. “This value extends through the service network and will help to instill confidence in EHR technology among health IT developers, health professionals and hospitals, and the general public.”

More on ANSI accreditation here.

Image via ANSI