East Tennessee Health Information Network (etHIN) Solves Duplicate Records Problem with Help of 4medica

Access to accurate patient records allows clinicians to treat patients effectively

MARINA DEL REY, Calif., Sept. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 4medica^®, a renowned healthcare data quality leader specializing in enterprise master person index (eMPI) matching technology and real-time interoperability, today announced that they have assisted the East Tennessee Health Information Network (etHIN) with their management of duplicate patient records.

"Our 104 member organizations depend on us to provide complete and accurate patient medical records. By addressing patient matching issues, etHIN strives to provide the most accurate and comprehensive data for our clinician participants to best support their effective and efficient patient care treatment activities," said Pam Matthews, CEO and executive director of etHIN.

4medica began work in December 2022 on etHIN's Enterprise Master Patient Index (eMPI), which comprised more than 6 million records and included 2.7 million total patient identities.

"etHIN's eMPI was typical of health information exchanges, with a large number of duplicate and overlaid records that can impact a participating organization's ability to access accurate and quality patient data," said Gregg Church, president of 4medica.

Headquartered in Knoxville, etHIN contains records of patients from all 95 Tennessee counties who have been treated in the eastern part of the state, along with patient records from other states and outside the United States.

Using its cloud-based eMPI engine, sophisticated data management services, including referential matching and AI/ML prediction technology, 4medica provided analysis that supported etHIN's activities addressing immediate issues and determination of a long-term strategic approach to maintaining a highly valued eMPI. 

4medica identified and met etHIN's targeted duplicate rate reduction of 0.39% or 7,411 unmatched identities, an excellent eMPI clean-up accomplishment. Leveraging 4medica's analysis, etHIN is working with its participants to ensure data consistency and quality at the data source.

It is common for health information exchanges to have duplicate patient records due to the data received from their data sources. eMPI mistakes commonly occur at patient registration locations and other points of data entry. While staffers at hospitals, clinics, labs and practices strive to locate information on a patient that may already be in their systems, they may opt to create a new record rather than spend valuable time searching.

This newly created record may lack important clinical information found with an existing record, which will not be added to the new record without human intervention. Bottom line: whichever of these two records a provider accesses will give them an incomplete view of the patient.

This not only introduces patient safety issues, but it also leads to higher healthcare costs as tests and procedures are redone because clinicians lacked access to complete patient records. Duplicate patient records cost healthcare organizations nearly $2,000 per inpatient stay and $800 per emergency department visit, according to a Black Book survey, while 30-40% of claims denials can be traced to wrong patient demographics and eligibility errors.

About 4medica

Since 1998, 4medica^® has been solving complex challenges around healthcare data exchange and health data management, enabling healthcare organizations to achieve real-time identity matching and clinical interoperability. The company's Health Data Management and Healthcare Interoperability software as a service (SaaS) solutions facilitate identity management and patient-centric clinical data exchange to ensure the right data is captured at the right time, guaranteeing an unprecedented 1% record duplication rate. The 4medica Cloud-based Clinical Data Exchange Platform simplifies connectivity, minimizes upfront costs with zero special hardware or client-server software, and reduces implementation time to weeks instead of months. 4medica connects 125,000,000 – plus patients and medical professionals to ACOs, HIEs, HINs, hospitals, health systems, laboratories, radiology imaging centers and payers nationwide. To learn more visit 4medica.com.

About East Tennessee Health Information Network (etHIN)

etHIN is a non-profit community health information network established in 2005 to serve the information needs of healthcare providers in Tennessee. etHIN manages a secure health information exchange infrastructure that is used by participants to exchange data, support improved patient outcomes, and help lower the cost of healthcare. Since 2011, etHIN has been securely exchanging health information between participants, including hospital systems, providers, home health and hospice, long term care facilities, labs, and other healthcare entities that provide services to more than 2.2 million individuals. For more information, visit www.ethin.org.

Media contact:

Katlyn Nesvold
Amendola Communications for 4medica
[email protected]

SOURCE 4medica