How to Use the SAFER Guides

The SAFER Guides are designed to help healthcare organizations conduct self-assessments to optimize the safety and safe use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the following areas: High Priority Practices, Organizational Responsibilities, Contingency Planning, System Configuration, System Interfaces, Patient Identification, Computerized Provider Order Entry with Decision Support, Test Results Reporting and Follow-Up, Clinician Communication. The recommended practices in the SAFER Guides are intended to be useful for all EHR users, developers, patient safety organizations, and others who are concerned with optimizing the safe use of health IT. 

*This video references and shows an earlier version of the SAFER Guides.  While the older version of the Guides used the term “phases” to describe what the updated guides call “domains,” the video remains useful because both the original and updated SAFER Guides would be used for the same purposes and in the same ways to help the health care organization assess and improve its approaches to ensuring safety and safe use of its health IT.