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4medica Customers Headed to Washington to Advise Nation's Health Leaders on Patient Identity MatchingMARINA DEL REY, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 4medica announced today that two of the company's patient identity matching customers will be featured session speakers at the upcoming 2018 ONC Interoperability Forum in Washington, D.C., August 6—8. Hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the forum attracts the nation's health technology leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors. Over the course of the forum, these leaders will discuss and formulate solutions to achieving true health data interoperability. Patient identity matching is a critical component of this objective, yet has been a struggle for many healthcare organizations in the absence of a national patient ID. With this persistent challenge as the backdrop, The Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN) and New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) will be featured presenters in the session track "Embracing Change: Adopting a New Approach to Matching Patients." Presenters from the two organizations will include Shelley Mannino-Marosi, Associate Director, MiHIN; Jim Cavanagh, Executive Director, NJII; and John Novak, Senior Director of Healthcare Delivery Systems, NJII. "MiHIN is excited to share our experiences in patient matching with ONC and its attendees," said Mannino-Marosi. "Since MiHIN went live in May 2017 with our patient matching services in Michigan, we are sending over 1.3 million more Admission, Discharge, Transfer Notifications to care team members per week. Our successes go hand-in-hand with the continuing support and encouragement of our stakeholders." NJII also weighed in. "Unfortunately, patient mismatching is a systemic problem of our healthcare system that drives costs and creates safety concerns for patients," said Cavanagh. "I believe, however, that NJII with the help of our technology partners will largely resolve the discrepancies that occur when transferring patient data and will drive accuracy in matching well over 90 percent." The two organizations, both 4medica customers, will describe how they are overcoming lack of a national patient ID with a new approach that includes 4medica's Big Data MPI, a master patient index technology designed for rapid, large scale use. Built to process millions of identities and transactions a day, the 4medica soution is adept at identifying duplicate records, and eliminating all but the most complete and accurate record. Taking this several steps further, 4medica technology can also automatically update missing fields in master records with the right patient data. EHRs store millions of patient records, using different data attributes and identifiers. This makes it difficult to match incoming patient data to master patient records and sets the stage for a mismatch. Or, confronted with multiple records for the same patient, administrators create a new master record—and add yet another duplicate record to the system. Both scenarios increase the risk of medical errors. As such, patient mismatching costs the healthcare industry millions of dollars a year and even lives. Given the scope of the problem, the ONC Interoperability Forum's Patient Identity Matching track will feature 10 different speaking sessions on the topic, including the session led by MiHIN and NJII. "Mismatching patients is one of the most dangerous errors in healthcare, and like so many challenges today, stems in part from the lack of interoperability among different EHR systems. We are gratified that both MiHIN and NJII will be tackling this issue head on at the ONC Interoperability Forum and believe they will spark a long-needed conversation about how we can end patient mismatching once and for all," said Gregg Church, president, 4medica. Members of the media interested in learning more about patient identity matching, or who wish to speak to 4medica executives at the ONC Interoperability Forum, may contact Stephanie Janard at [email protected] or 828-288-2831. About 4medica About Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services About New Jersey Innovation Institute NJII's Healthcare Delivery Systems iLab mission is to create a "Data Driven Transformation" innovation ecosystem where government funded experiments create solutions for healthcare problems that increase quality, lower costs, reduce physician burden, and enhance the patient experience. The ilab drives innovation for providers, hospitals, health systems and other stakeholders through its Garden Practice Transformation Network, The New Jersey Health Information Network, Innovation as a Service; and Incentive Payment Programs that include the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, Promoting Interoperability, Physician Quality Reporting System, Accountable Care Organization and Delivery System Reform Incentive Program. Media Contact: Stephanie Janard
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