First Pst after migration to Cloud in Health care Blog

In a recent healthcare information technology survey, more than 40 percent of chief information officers identified patient matching as healthcare’s top IT concern. And though a quarter of the respondents admitted it wasn’t a current priority for their organizations, they did say that it very much should be. There’s no shortage of reasons why, but the most pressing is the need to reduce medical errors, which account for over 250,000 deaths in the United States every single year. Case in point: Seventeen percent of CIOs acknowledged that errors in matching data with the right medical identities have led directly to adverse outcomes for patients. The numbers speak for themselves: Healthcare organizations must find more effective ways to manage the data within their networks. That begins with building a robust medical database that not only hoses data, but also knows how to match it with the proper patients. How robust EMPIs streamline workflows An enterprise master patient index (EMPI) is a database that can help you clean up your data and eliminate duplicate and inaccurate records. It uses algorithms to match exact data elements among disparate records, as well as elements that fall within an acceptable range of possible compatibility. Using technology that can apply an algorithm of probabilistic and referential matching methodologies will allow healthcare organizations to expand beyond the limitations of conventional single methodology matching, as both probabilistic and referential matching techniques provide a higher degree of likeliness. The system assigns these data points to unique identities that follow patients throughout the organization. Any new data generated within the network is also attached to this identity, meaning physicians, specialists, pharmacists, and other members of the patient’s care team can access and update it as needed. EMPI support tools and unique patient identities are building blocks toward creating a healthcare ecosystem that’s truly interoperable. According to an April 2018 survey by Black Book, hospitals with an EMPI report “consistently correct patient identification at an overall average 93 percent of registrations and 85 percent of externally shared records among non-networked providers.” Unfortunately, not all healthcare systems possess the IT infrastructure to support these programs. And as long as some organizations fail to integrate similar platforms, providers won’t reap the benefits of industry-wide interoperability — and patients will continue to suffer. Whether it’s a frustrating billing mix-up, privacy breach, or a detrimental (or even fatal) misdiagnosis, many errors can be successfully prevented with an EMPI. Filling in the holes The goal of such a system should be to standardize data entry and access within each healthcare organization, as well as across the entire industry. Such a network could protect, govern, and match unique patient identities across every discipline and every aspect of their care continuum. But in order for the system to achieve these goals, you need to be sure you’re feeding it relevant, recent patient information. To ensure you have enough patient data to build an EMPI that accurately matches profiles, ask yourself these questions: 1. What kind of medical care have my patients received before this visit? When patients enter a new hospital, they’re given a brand-new identity, or patient number, that’s only relevant to that healthcare system. The identity you assign them within your own organization doesn’t provide any insight about what they’ve experienced before their current visit — and that’s the crux of the matter. When patient information is siloed within a specific system, you have no view of the patient’s medical history. But when it’s shared across systems and fed into a more dynamic and interoperable data management system, patients will ultimately receive better care. 2. Who are my patients when they’re not “patients”? It’s important to understand who patients are when they’re not in the hospital. Yes, they’re husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. But some could be physically fit, while others haven’t seen the inside of a gym in years. Some might get regular checkups, but others cannot afford to see a physician regularly. All of these traits factor into your patients’ identities. With a comprehensive EMPI, you can tie them together to understand the environmental and socioeconomic factors that influence your patients’ health. You can then identify what social determinants of health need to be addressed or could potentially influence the efficacy of certain treatments. 3. Can we identify patients without a picture ID? Biometrics such as fingerprints and iris scans are more secure forms of identification than a photo ID. They’ll not only make it easier to identify patients, but will also offer heightened security against fraud. That being said, even biometric identification isn’t 100 percent secure unless it’s part of a database, such as the EMPI, that accurately matches patient identities with relevant medical data. Accepting that the healthcare industry needs better data management and patient-matching strategies is the first step to realizing those goals. EMPIs have shown organizations the value in universal patient identities. Now, they simply need comprehensive databases that are robust enough to keep patient identities consistent across the entire healthcare ecosystem.

Not every healthcare organization embraced electronic medical records (EMRs) at first. But the incentives and regulations put in place by Meaningful Use and the Affordable Care Act have made it necessary to implement them. Now, organizations are not only embracing EMRs, but also making it easier for their patients to access and manage them through remote portals. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, approximately 63 percent of patients who used portals did so at their doctors’ recommendation. Despite the growing popularity of patient portals, there are still more than 25 percent of patients who refuse to use them for fear of jeopardizing their data. Considering the sensitive nature of their protected health information (PHI), along with the nearly 5.6 million health records that were compromised last year, those fears are more than reasonable. What can providers do? Hackers have honed in on the healthcare industry for two main reasons: the treasure trove of valuable information in medical records and a sometimes dated approach to cybersecurity. In fact, between 2009 and 2016, more than 30 percent of all big data breaches occurred within healthcare systems. Without proper encryption methods, login redundancies, and detection tools, portals are almost as easily accessible to hackers as they are to authorized users. As their usage grows, that lack of security will become an exponentially greater threat to patients’ PHI and identities. “Many of us are accustomed to keeping the same name and password with our accounts, and as we know, that information is very lucrative to the right individuals," says Victoria Dames, Director of Identity Management for Experian Health. "While it's our due diligence to constantly change them, there are certain scenarios where maybe we forgot to change them or we don’t regularly login and that password may sit idle. When that happens, you want to make sure that you have the right technology in place to be able to catch somebody potentially logging in, trying to impersonate a patient.” Providers can’t lower the value of PHI to make it less attractive to hackers, but they can protect it more effectively with up-to-date cybersecurity measures. These four tips can help organizations bring their patient portal security up-to-date and keep their networks safe from unauthorized access: 1. Automate the portal sign-up process. Automating the initial sign-up process can stop false enrollments into the portal at the source. When implemented correctly, the automation will only require the patient to enter a few pieces of information, and then the software can confirm the user’s identity on the back end. 2. Leverage multilayer verification. After patients have signed up to access the portal, using multilayer verification can ensure all future sessions are equally secure. For example, two-factor authentication adds additional protection on top of conventional login credentials. In addition to a password or PIN, users also have to provide something personal such as a cell phone number, ZIP code, fingerprint, iris scan, or more. If the user’s device, account ID, and/or password are compromised, two-factor authentication can ensure the organization’s network remains safe. 3. Keep anti-virus and malware software up-to-date. Multilayer verification protects users’ direct access to portals, but there are other, more frequent vulnerabilities that also need attention. For instance, HIMSS Analytics recently found that 78 percent of providers experienced ransomware and malware attacks last year. Email is the avenue of choice for malware, and these attacks constantly evolve to slip past conventional security measures. If anti-virus software is outdated, it remains vulnerable to every new iteration of malware that attacks the network. Most solutions allow for automatic opt-ins so updates are downloaded and installed as soon as they’re made available. 4. Promote interoperability standards. When primary care physicians, specialists, and healthcare payers talk to one another throughout the course of a patient’s care, it isn’t always through email. When their systems aren’t compatible, they can’t communicate as clearly and securely as they need to. Interoperability makes it possible for disparate systems to share medical histories and patient data while making that data easily understandable on either system. Because interoperability is essential for improving the continuum of care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide standards for healthcare organizations to promote it. More patients and providers are optimistic about using technology to improve the healthcare experience. However, one in five patients remain so suspicious of healthcare data security that they refuse to even divulge some information to their physicians. Fortunately, with the right tools, organizations can effectively strengthen portal security and boost the confidence their patients have in them.

This week, Experian Health is a proud partner of National Health IT Week. U.S. National Health IT Week is a nationwide awareness week focused on catalyzing actionable change within the U.S. health system through the application of information and technology. Comprehensive healthcare reform is not possible without system-wide adoption of health information technology, which improves the quality of healthcare delivery, increases patient safety, decreases medical errors, and strengthens the interaction between patients and healthcare providers. Initiated in 2006 by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), National Health IT Week has emerged as a landmark occasion for using health IT as part of the overall solution to improve America’s healthcare as a bipartisan, federally led, market driven initiative. While the healthcare industry has transformed in the last decade as health organizations have moved to electronic health records (EHRs), it brings us one step closer to the vision of comprehensive care coordination, but fully achieving care coordination across the vast health enterprise is still a long way ahead. While a recent American Hospital Association (AHA) survey showed that nearly all reported hospitals (96 percent) possessed certified EHR technology in 2015, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology reports that there is very little coordination of patient data across the healthcare ecosystem. Much of this disconnect begins with the inability to transfer data in a secure manner that will match, manage and protect patient identities across enterprises. "As hospitals must now deal with hundreds of thousands of electronic patient records, spanning multiple systems and departments, the traditional technologies to managing patient information are no longer sufficient," says Karly Rowe, Vice President of New Product Development, Identity and Care Management Products for Experian Health. "Leveraging sophisticated matching technology and outside data sources, can improve patient identification and prevent duplicate or overlapping records which result in inappropriate care, redundant tests, and medical errors – as well as make data accuracy higher for clinical, administrative, and quality improvement decision purposes." To solve the industry problem of matching, matching and protecting patient identities across the healthcare ecosystem, we must start by creating a universal patient identifier (UPI) to make patient data truly interoperable. For example, one of the biggest challenges in managing patient data begins when patients move, change names, or switch doctors and their EHR doesn’t follow them. They have to start over, trying to recall events and dates in their medical history with a new doctor, who is tasked with providing care without the detailed insight into the patient’s medical record. But if that same patient had a universal identifier that allowed healthcare providers to communicate with another healthcare provider about a patient, the new provider would know all the ins and outs of that patient’s history, leading to a more holistic approach to care and higher patient satisfaction. Simply put, a UPI can be thought of as a mechanism to link all patient information and associate it with the right individual based on patient data. This is similar to how credit bureaus link an individual’s credit history to the right individual to ensure accurate reporting. Using a similar model, patient data — and supporting patient demographic data — can be used for the common good to improve patient safety, increase quality of care and reduce mistaken identity risks. The benefits of a UPI extend across the entire healthcare system as well, as it improves the quality of patient identities, which can have duplicate, overlapping and incomplete records. Additionally, a UPI can help eliminate incorrect medical treatments; deliver current and accurate patient data; and prevent identity fraud, HIPAA breaches and incidental disclosures of protected health information (PHI). Ultimately, this will build patient trust through increased visibility and record accuracy. Knowing that preventable medical errors, many of which are the result of incorrect patient identification, are the third leading cause of death in the United States. The creation of a UPI will allow the healthcare industry to facilitate accurate information exchange to stop problems before they start. For example, if a patient shows up to fill a prescription and is mistaken for another patient with the same name and given the wrong prescription, there could be fatal interactions with other medications that patient is taking. The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) has already started using this technology to establish national patient safety identifiers. A national patient safety identifier, or UPI, is a vendor-neutral, cost-effective solution that will link patient data at scale efficiently and accurately to improve patient safety and care coordination. Identity management is a critical, underlying component to every interaction, and healthcare is no exception. To fully achieve the goal of comprehensive care coordination, creating a UPI to help match, manage and protect patient data is the first step in achieving the interoperability of patient data. Participate in National Health IT Week’s Virtual March and help catalyze actionable change within the U.S. health system through the effective use of health IT.