CHIME Launches Patient ID Challenge Urging Innovators To Find A Solution
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
An effective patient id system could reduce medical errors and improve safety across healthcare.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has launched a campaign urging innovators and designers to participate in the National Patient ID Challenge. CHIME has put up $1 million through the HeroX platform to support health IT developers in their efforts to design a patient matching application that could connect individuals to their health information, a move that could help reduce medical errors and improve safety across the healthcare spectrum.
The challenge, called a “quest for a universal solution,” is to “ensure 100 percent accuracy of every patient’s health info to reduce preventable medical errors and eliminate unnecessary hospital costs/resources.”
CHIME is offering this challenge because there is currently no universal solution, and as the use of electronic patient records becomes more pervasive, efficient and accurate identification and matching of patients to the PHI is becoming a top priority. “As health information exchange becomes more prevalent, patient matching is a perennial issue,” Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA, CEO of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), said in a press release. “A solution would be a significant step toward ensuring the integrity of health information and, as a result, better patient care. AHIMA is proud to support this challenge.”
A variety of vendors and industry partners are supporting the CHIME challenge to develop a better patient matching system including the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Cerner Corporation, the Health IT Now Coalition, and MEDITECH.
“This needs to be the year of positive patient identification,” said CHIME Board Chair Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, LCHIME, CHCIO, Vice President and CIO of St. Francis Hospital in Georgia. “Healthcare CIOs have long struggled with a lack of national standards for eradicating the burdens of matching patient data when engaging in health information exchange. As those charged with leading health information technology, we have a responsibility to ensuring the technology we’re implementing leads to better, safer, more efficient patient care.”
Interoperability is not enough; EHRs must be able to be seamlessly shared and exchanged by healthcare providers. “Accurate patient identification is essential to true interoperability, and maximizes the ability for health IT to ensure the best possible outcome for the patient. We are excited to see CHIME joining existing efforts such as the CommonWell Health Alliance in leveraging private market resources to remove this unnecessary barrier,” said Zane Burke, President of Cerner Corporation.