The Safety Assurance Factors for Electronic Health Record Resilience (SAFER) Guides help healthcare organizations routinely assess and improve their electronic health record systems and are a required annual attestation by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. An AHRQ-funded study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, outlines updates to the 2025 guidelines that reflect current evidence and clinical practice.
The revised guidelines streamline content, reduce the number of recommended practices by 40 percent and make it easier for healthcare teams to assess and improve electronic health record systems. The 2025 SAFER Guides consist of eight guides organized into three broad groups. These guides enable healthcare organizations to address EHR safety in a variety of areas. The guides identify recommended practices to optimize the safety and safe use of EHRs.
2025 SAFER Guides
Foundational Guides
Infrastructure Guides
Clinical Process Guides
- Patient Identification [PDF – 1.8 MB]
- Computerized Provider Order Entry with Decision Support [PDF – 1.4 MB]
- Test Results Reporting and Follow-Up [PDF – 1.8 MB]
- Clinician Communication [PDF – 1.6 MB]
If you aren’t familiar with this program, it might be a good time to review the links above. HIPAA is real and any breach in the requirements can be costly to your organization but more importantly to your resident’s personal health information.
Stay well and stay informed!
