M2SYS Technology
TM
Free Online Learning Podcasts
Patient Identification in Healthcare with Nancy Farrington, CHAM, EMPI Administrator – HIM,
Main Line Health System
Topics Covered in Podcast:
The #1 challenge in patient identification
Patient identification’s role in patient safety strategies
Real risks of patient misidentification
What can be done to prevent patient misidentification?
Patient Identification issues across health information
exchanges
#1 Challenge in Patient Identification
Key Points:
•
•
•
No established standards on what to use for patient ID
Lack of consistency on how patient ID data is collected
Public perception that they don’t have to present ID when accessing healthcare
Did you know?
Nancy Farrington has over 30 years of
experience in patient access and served on
NAHAM’s board of directors.
Patient Identification’s Role in
Patient Safety Strategies
•
•
•
•
•
Joint Commission standard for 2 patient identifiers only applies to in-house patients (small
subset of patient population), not at the point of registration
Healthcare Information & Management Systems (HIMSS) working on developing positive
patient ID documentation
Congress is investigating the possibility of creating a uniform patient identification card
among other options
Clear lack of patient identification standards hampering industry
Accurate patient identification is essential in patient safety
Patient Identification’s Role in
Patient Safety Strategies (continued)
•
College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) recently conducted
study that 19% of hospitals that participated had an adverse patient mismatch in past year
Did you know?
Healthcare fraud is estimated to cost between
$70 billion and $255 billion per year which
accounts for between 3% and 10% of total
healthcare costs. – The Ponemon Institute
Risks and Costs of Patient
Misidentification/Duplicate Medical
Records
•
•
•
•
Conservative industry estimates indicate that duplicate medical records cost approximately $20 $25 per duplicate for remediation
Many believe that the cost of duplicate medical records are higher for healthcare than losses
related to medical identity theft
Patient misidentification sometimes leads to unnecessary additional testing & duplicate patient
care that insurance won’t cover
Time lost by patient and provider is often overlooked as a consequence of patient
misidentification & duplicate medical records
Risks and Costs of Patient
Misidentification/Duplicate Medical
Records (continued)
•
Lawsuits & loss of confidence by community are additional costs and risks borne by patient
misidentification and duplicate medical records
Did you know?
Accurate Patient Identification has been number
one on the list of the Joint Commission’s
Hospital National Patient Safety Goals since 2003.
Duplicate Medical Records – Is
Healthcare Addressing the Issue?
•
•
•
Clearly not getting the attention it deserves
Issue may reach critical mass within next year partly because of push to electronic medical/health
records (EHR/EMR), healthcare information exchanges (HIEs), and Meaningful Use
At the end of Meaningful Use round 2 is when many expect duplicate medical record issue to
become more prominent
Did you know?
Healthcare fraud continues to be the top category for
arrests and convictions each year according to the
Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
Results of NAHAM’s Study on
Duplicate Medical Records
•
•
•
•
•
Conducted in 2008
Focused on contributing factors to duplicate medical records & what is being done to prevent and
resolve them, not the cost
More than 200 respondents
Respondents categorized into high and low performers:
•
High performers – Those having less than 2% duplicate rate in MPI
•
Low performers – Those having greater than 6% duplicate rate in MPI
Most healthcare organizations underreport the number of duplicate records in their system
Results of NAHAM’s Study on
Duplicate Medical Records
(continued)
•
What characteristics distinguished high performers from low performers for patient data
collection?
•
High Performers
•
Collecting patient social security numbers
•
Collecting patient address & telephone number
•
Collecting other names and aliases
*(If you can check on previous variations of people’s names, you will have a higher patient match rate)
•
Low Performers
•
Had higher rate of patient ID errors and problems found by nursing and clinical
departments (more expensive to resolve patient misidentification)
Results of NAHAM’s Study on
Duplicate Medical Records
(continued)
Conclusions
•
•
•
•
One conclusion from study is that the more data elements that are required during patient ID
process, less likely that an error will occur
Future studies will include more in-depth analysis on what types of technologies facilities are
using (for example, biometric patient identification) and how this will impact the results
Nancy predicts that more hospitals will use biometrics for patient ID in the future, helping to
boost adoption and acceptance
Organizations that have multi-disciplined approach to educate staff & resolve duplicates are more
successful than those who delegate responsibility to strictly one department
What can be done to Prevent Patient
Misidentification?
•
•
Adopting new technologies to assist in the patient ID process
•
Examples
•
Smart cards
•
Biometrics
•
Advanced probabilistic matching software
There is long term return on investment (ROI) for technology upgrades
Did you know?
Nearly half of all medical identity theft victims lost
their health care coverage and only 10% of all medical
identity theft victims’ incidents were completely resolved.
- The Ponemon Institute
What are Main Issues for Patient
Identification Across Health
Information Exchanges (HIEs)?
•
•
•
Information is being exchanged without available contact (conversation) with the patient for
confirmation – i.e. electronic data exchanges will require more matching data points
Size of database increases chances of misidentifying patients and creating duplicate medical
records
Patient access to data will uncover more identification errors and duplicate medical records
Thank you to Nancy Farrington for
lending us her time and knowledge
for this podcast!
Contact Information
John Trader
PR and Marketing
M2SYS Technology
1050 Crown Pointe Pkwy.
Suite 470
Atlanta, GA 30338
jtrader@m2sys.com
770-821-1734
www.m2sys.com
Twitter: twitter.com/m2sys
Facebook: facebook.com/m2sys
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/m2sys-technology