Butler Health Conquers Patient Matching Challenge

07/11/2018

ATLANTA – Butler Health System (BHS) successfully reached a 97 percent matching accuracy using solutions provided by LexisNexis® Risk Solutions and Occam Technologies. Pennsylvania-based BHS needed help linking 1.3 million patient records across its seven-county system – a 296-bed hospital, 36 ambulatory locations and more than 50 physician offices, so it turned to Occam and LexisNexis.

Using the Occam enterprise Master Patient Index (eMPI) platform and the LexisNexis LexID® solution, BHS matched the records for 740,000 unique patients contained in six different electronic medical records systems (EMRs). The process involved layering the LexID technology on top of Occam’s eMPI deduping platform. The success was a core step in Butler’s enterprise analytics and patient safety initiatives and helped increase efficiencies for the BHS staff.

There were five issues BHS needed to address that drove the need for more accuracy in its patient record matching:

1. Patient Safety – correct records are a must for proper diagnosis and treatment
2. New information system – plans set for replacement in 2018
3. Future mergers and acquisitions – especially area physician practices
4. Payment reform – switch to value-based system from fee-for-service
5. Gain-sharing risk – accurate performance data is critical to increasing use of gain-sharing contracts with physicians

“We were preparing to launch a population health initiative to help us meet quality requirements for value-based care and MACRA, but this would not have been possible without having patient records properly matched,” said Dr. Thomas McGill, vice president quality and chief medical information officer, Butler Health System. “To meet our objectives, we needed data integrity. Our health system has been experiencing rapid growth and when faced with the challenge of bringing together information from six disparate EMRs, we needed an efficient solution to link and match patient records and resolve duplicates. Manually trying to match more than a million records would have taken years.”

When the data does not support an automated match, Occam then layers the LexID proprietary linking technology into its platform. LexID, similar to the much proposed national patient identifier, gives each patient a non-social security number unique identity. This combination of solutions helped BHS to reach the 97 percent matching accuracy. Such accuracy helps to save BHS time, money and resources. And, it helps to improve patient safety.

“Our projects can’t wait for months or years of manual research, so we chose LexisNexis,” said Lee Prosch, CEO, Occam Technologies. “Building the LexID technology into our eMPI platform enabled our clients to put their data to work much faster. The automated decision making saved thousands of hours.”

“Without the confidence that comes from knowing the data is accurate, we would not have been able to properly allocate resources to effectively manage the health of our patients,” added McGill.

“Using the Occam eMPI layered with the LexisNexis LexID has helped us get a lot closer to 100 percent accuracy with our patient records.”

For more information, read the full case study.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data, sophisticated analytics platforms and technology solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit LexisNexis Risk Solutions and RELX.