M2SYS Healthcare Solutions offers this slide show summary of our podcast with Sharon Canner from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) on topics including: patient identity, CIOs, the advantages and disadvantages of a national patient identifier (NPI), how healthcare IT has succeeded and fallen short to implement electronic health records, the impact of health IT on the economy, and more.

1. M2SYS Technology
Free Online Learning Podcasts
Patient Identity and the Role of Modern CIO’s with Sharon Canner,
Director of Public Policy, College of Healthcare Information
Management Executives (CHIME) recorded at 2013 HIMSS
Conference
Podcast length – 42:53

2. Topics Covered in Podcast:
Who is CHIME, and what is their mission?
What technologies are emerging as viable solutions to help
address patient identification and data matching?
What are the pros and cons of establishing a National Patient
Identifier (NPI) and is CHIME in favor of this initiative?
How has healthcare IT succeeded and fallen short to implement
electronic medical records and what changes or adjustments
should be made to foster more innovation?
What impact do successful healthcare IT implementations have
on the economic vitality of the industry and the economy?
What are the top health IT initiatives that healthcare CIO’s
are currently most consumed with?

3. Topics Covered in Podcast (continued):
Do CHIME members use a “best practice” approach when testing
new methodologies or does the forum foster an environment of
innovation?
How much of the burden of accurate patient ID typically fall on
the IT department?

4. Who is CHIME, and what is their mission?
• The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME)
is the only organization that serves the educational and development
needs of senior healthcare IT leaders
• Positions on issues are all member-driven
• CHIME works with Capitol Hill to educate and encourage and are not
lobbyists
• Encourage continued support for health IT initiatives
• Engage with federal agencies on regulatory proposals
• Established a State network of CIOs called “CIOStatenet” -
http://ciostatenet.org/ - collaborate on consent and patient matching

5. Emerging Technologies to Help Address Patient
Identification and Data Matching
• There are a variety of technologies in use across the country, which is
essentially the crux of the problem
• Patient identity systems that work well internally may not work as well
across health information exchanges (HIEs) or Integrated Delivery
Networks (IDNs)
• Lack of healthcare industry standards or required data elements causes
patient identification problems throughout industry – error rates are
5% – 8%
Types:
• Algorithms: mathematical formulas to combine weighted data elements
– could be name, DOB, even email addresses

6. Emerging Technologies to Help Address Patient
Identification and Data Matching
• Biometrics: Using human physiological characteristics for identification
(Example – iris, palm vein, fingerprint)
• Patient identity systems that work well internally may not work as well
across health information exchanges (HIEs) or Integrated Delivery
Networks (IDNs)
Did you know?
In a 2011 study, Harris County, TX
researched a number of years of data and
determined that they had over 2,400
patients named Maria Garcia. Of those, 231
had the same birth date.

7. National Patient Identifiers (NPI) – Pros and Cons
Pros:
• Efficient way to connect patients with their medical data
• Facilitates efficient information exchange between physicians
• Guards against needless medical errors
• Promotes safety, improves care, and lowers costs
• Improves privacy
Cons:
• May facilitate more collection and sale of patient data
• Patients may lose trust in the system and withhold information that may
compromise their privacy

8. National Patient Identifiers (NPI) – Pros and Cons
• CHIME has been working closely with HIMSS and Capitol Hill on the issue
including the political feasibility of a NPI
• CHIME feels that there really is no consensus on the issue
• NPI doesn’t resolve all of the problems, additional data is needed to
ensure accurate patient matching
• What to do in the absence of a NPI?
• There could be agreement on a standard set of matching
methodologies
• Work with ONC and NIST to provide an environment for crafting
parameters of a common matching algorithm
• Best practices study

9. National Patient Identifiers (NPI) – Pros and Cons
• Establish non-punitive safeguards available for providers and HIEs
adopting the resolving methodologies
• Leverage the work of the National Strategy for Trust and Identities
in Cyberspace (NSTIC) – shows promise in dealing with direct
patient encounters
• More effective training of front end staff
• Use of a voluntary patient identifier

10. Healthcare IT’s Success with HITECH Implementation
• Percentage of use for tools of clinical decision support has gone up and
is much more widely used
• Accurate reporting of electronic clinical quality measures is proving to be
one of the most daunting challenges faced by providers
• Although EHR products were able to automatically reduce CQM reports,
the data was inaccurate and not comparable across different providers
• CHIME feels that current patient safety initiatives across the government
should be leveraged instead of creating something new
• Still work to be done on establishing more effective means of patient
matching
• Overall, HITECH has had a positive impact on using the tools of Health IT
to improve care

11. Impact of Healthcare IT on Industry and Economy
• Creation of Accountable Care Organizatons (ACOs) , bundled payments,
and other reimbursement models are encouraging greater efficiency –
all fueled by healthcare IT
• Healthcare IT data collection portends even greater savings when
organizations analyze and leverage
• HITECH act sparked need for Health IT staff, trained at Community
Colleges, but was it too soon? A lot of graduates still looking for work –
Congressional schedule may have been out of sync with needs of
hospital IT systems
• Health IT jobs are high value and add to the economic growth of the
country

12. Top Health IT Concerns for CIOs
1. Meaningful Use Stage 1 and Stage 2 implementation, and planning for
Stage 3
2. The evolution of health information exchange and interoperability – we
won’t realize the gains of Meaningful Use until we achieve true
interoperability
3. Patient matching
4. Clinical quality measurement across value based programs
5. Accountable Care Organizations
6. Stark Exemption (sunsets at end of 2013)
7. Patient portal patent disputes
8. ICD 10

13. Testing New Methodologies at CHIME
• A great deal of variety in how CHIME encourages and innovation
• CHME members seek out best practices through formal settings like
CHIME’s annual forum and multiple networking, online communication
venues (example – “My CHIME,” a place for CIOs to share and raise
questions)
• Conversations CIOs have with their vendors, EHR developers - many of
which have put together informal networks to share best practices
• CHIME holds periodic webinars to encourage discussion

14. How Much of the Burden of Accurate Patient ID Falls
on an IT Department?
• IT department has responsibility to select and implement software that
performs patient matching
• IT is the lead in taking interdisciplinary effort of client and vendor teams
• IT maintains close relationship with vendors to facilitate smooth
operation of internal systems
• IT is asked to identify, devise, and implement technology to help
positively identify patient at point of care

15. Sharon’s #1 Takeaway from 2013 HIMSS Conference
• In a number of sessions with ONC and CMS, Sharon observed a lot of note
taking, and genuine listening to the concerns of CIOs. There was an air of
palpable concern and authenticity, something that struck her as a step
forward in further opening the lines of communication and dialogue
between the entities.
• Sharon also enjoyed walking the exhibit floor and interacting with
vendors to learn how the products work and what value they add to
health IT. What does the product do for patients? What does the product
do on the network?

16. Thank you to Sharon Canner for her time
and knowledge for this podcast!

17. Contact Information
John Trader
PR and Marketing Manager
M2SYS Technology
1050 Crown Pointe Pkwy.
Suite 850
Atlanta, GA 30338
jtrader@m2sys.com
770-821-1734
www.m2sys.com
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