Master Patient Index

When it comes to health records a lot of the problem of having a lot of duplicate records is the fact that people don’t take the time to search to see if there is a record of that patient or not. Because of this then the health system ends up with doubles of the same patient. It is important to identify duplicates so that the same patient doesn’t have two separate records. Failure to correctly identify an individual in the master patient index may result in one or more integrity problems. Several problems can arise if patient information is not located. For example these may include billing errors, performance of unnecessary duplicate tests, and increased legal exposure in the area of adverse treatment outcomes. The reason reviewing duplicate management reports is to ensure that there isn’t an overlay in the MPI, this is where a patient is assigned another patients medical record number. Or that there isn’t and overlap in the patients records. This is when more than one medical record number exists for the same patient within an enterprise at different facilities or in different databases. The HIM professional is an integral participant in ensuring that accurate documentation practices are implemented and followed in the organization. It is crucial for HIM professionals to be involved with the documentation practices at their organizations. The HIM professional is obligated to understand and ensure the proper use of copy functionality to support EHR documentation quality and integrity. HIM professionals must also work closely with IT vendors to clearly articulate the expectations of the copy functionality and how it may be used within the EHR systems at their organizations. The HIM professional's role is to ensure the information integrity of the EHR system. HIM professionals must knowledgably incorporate and appropriately manage the copy functionality of an EHR. This will be accomplished by ensuring their organizations have sound documentation integrity,