Patient Matching Errors Risk Safety Issues, Raise Health Care Costs
Electronic health records (EHRs) hold key information: a patient’s medical history, medications, allergies and more. But patients see multiple doctors in different locations, and current ways of matching people to their records are inadequate.
Next Steps for Health IT Interoperability After 21st Century Cures Act
The 21st Century Cures Act, a major piece of federal health legislation passed in 2016, included provisions to address a widespread problem associated with electronic health records (EHRs): patient matching. Lacking a universal system for this, health care providers often have trouble linking patients to their records at the places where they have obtained care.
Electronic Health Records: Patient Matching and Data Standardization Remain Top Challenges
Since 2009, hospitals and physicians have rapidly moved from paper patient records to electronic ones. These technologies have helped to foster safer, higher-quality, and more coordinated care. But electronic health records (EHRs) have not yet reached their full potential. This is partly because hospitals and doctors’ offices still face challenges in sharing data about the same patient. The inability to link patient records among different health systems, and to format the data in a way that can be easily exchanged, prevents patients and their doctors from having the information they need to make appropriate decisions.
