Duplicate Patient Records as a Major and Costly EHR and EMPI Problem

I have posted a number of notes about the use of IT to improve efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare. A gnarly but persistent problem has been duplicate patent records and substantial IT resources are required to correct the problem. Below is an excerpt from an article on this topic (see:Artificial Intelligence and ethics will drive a patient matching revolution in 2019):Existing patient matching technologies are failing, as evidenced by skyrocketing rates of duplicate records in electronic health record (EHR) and enterprise master patient index (EMPI) systems. In fact, duplicate record rates have nearly doubled in the past decade, from an average of 10 percent in 2008 to 18 percent today....These patient matching technologies are failing at the worst possible time —as more and more of a health system’s strategic initiatives fundamentally rely on accurate and complete patient data. The dire consequences of these failures include a third of claims being denied costing $1.5 million annually; massive operational inefficiencies costing $200,000 annually; lowered return on investment (ROI) of EHR deployments; inhibited value-based care initiatives; and drastic consequences to patient safety, care quality, and patient satisfaction....Yet nowhere can AI have a more immediate and accessible impact than in patient matching. Currently, health systems have teams of data stewards and health information management (HIM) professionals dedicated to finding, reviewing, researc...

Source: Lab Soft News - January 19, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Computer Security Cost of Healthcare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Financial Medical Research Source Type: blogs