Operations Team Working to Better Enhance the Onboarding Process

October 2010 to January 2011 - Nitor's Operations Team has been working closely with the Nationwide Health Information Network Coordinating Committee to create and further enhance the Onboarding process for Organizations looking to join the Nationwide Health Information Network.

The Operations Team developed a new standardized Onboarding process for the Nationwide Health Information Network. This new process creates a coordinated, phased approach for bringing Onboarding Organizations through the qualification, validation, and activation stages in an effort to join the Exchange. In addition, the team worked with the Exchange Coordinating Committee and legal counsel to revise the Application artifacts to better meet the program’s needs and user experience.

A suite of educational materials is now available for Organizations wishing to join the Exchange. The Onboarding Wiki pages contains information about the Onboarding process, certificate installation guides, the validation process and test preparation tips, fact sheets, and multiple visual presentations to guide Organizations through each Onboarding phase.

Testing Team Paves the Way in Validation Support and Automation

Nitor's Testing Team is improving the validation process and support for Organizations joining the Nationwide Health Information Network. The Team has developed various resources and tools allowing Organizations to prepare and successfully participate in the Exchange.

The Pre-Validation Toolkit “Keys to Success” Wiki pages is now available to assist candidate Organizations during the Exchange Onboarding process.  Organizations can use this Tool Kit in their preparation efforts to begin Conformance Testing.  The goal is to make the process both easier and more efficient for both the Organizations and the Testing Team, reducing the amount of time needed to complete the validation process.

The Interoperability Lab Release 1.3 was pushed to production on January 31, 2011.  The lab includes the automation of the Initial Connectivity Test, step 1 of the Conformance Testing process, and the ability to directly view the messages during Conformance Testing.  Both are intended to streamline the validation process and help Organizations perform validation testing independently.  Work has begun on automating the remainder of the conformance test cases with an anticipated release in April 2011.

Two Organization’s have successfully completed validation testing and reports have been submitted to the Exchange Coordinating Committee for approval.  Currently, six organizations are in various stages of Conformance Testing, three Organizations are going through Interoperability Testing, and two organizations are preparing to begin Conformance Testing.