Providing premium patient care is as much about providing sound medical information, diagnosis and treatment as it is about data quality. When data quality management is lacking, there are issues that may call data integrity into question. In this respect, data quality management is a best practice that any modern health organization needs to implement, especially with regard to any enterprise master patient index (EMPI) software in use.
Patient Records
One issue is patient records. Some organizations may not have the IT capabilities to process and present patient healthcare information in a consolidated format. In many cases, technological limitations may preclude some information while glitches and differences in the way healthcare data is entered may cause some records to simply go missing. In turn, coordination of electronic records may become an issue and sensitive information may be inadvertently exposed.
Clinical Decision Making
Clinical Decision Making Support Systems (CDSS) also rely on data quality. Vital signs are entered upon emergency intake and during care. However, many healthcare organizations do not use electronic health records (EHRs) for documenting vital signs. Instead, more than 50 percent prefer paper-based documentations.
This is an issue because without digital documentation, some vital signs, such as respiratory rate, may be overlooked. Moreover, even if electronic documentation does exist, it often does not exist in an interoperable format that is accessible by all the devices.
Financial Information
Finally, financial information may be a barrier to providing premium patient care. “Healthcare informaticists integrate clinical care data with financial data. Using these statistics, executives can make decisions that improve patient service and quality of care,” writes the University of Scranton. Streamlined financials also mean that you, as an organization, have a better understanding of the services you need to provide and offers better documentation so that you get paid in a timely fashion.
Understanding Enterprise Master Patient Index Software
Data standards can help in maintaining and implementing EMPI software. They also serve the data quality management purpose. “To ensure that patient data is accurate and up to date, healthcare organizations rely on EMPI technologies to match and link patient records across disparate systems, like electronic medical records, lab systems, radiology systems and Health Information Systems,” writes IBM. “This technology… [helps] doctors make decisions about a patient based on the whole of their care continuum.” Done well, EMPI software can make a difference to your patients’ quality of care, as well as your bottom line.
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