Electronic Health Reporter

Harris Healthcare’s Data Integrity Solution Business Unit – which includes patient data integrity powerhouses Just Associates, Inc., and QuadraMed Corporation – have entered a strategic partnership with RightPatient to integrate biometric patient identification into its existing suite of master patient index (MPI) management solutions.

Doing so provides important protections against front-end contamination of the MPI and EMPI and helps eliminate the patient misidentification and safety issues created by “dirty” patient identification data. This is especially important now as spikes in remote patient registrations due to COVID-19 have led to a sharp increase in duplicate patient records.

“Biometric protections from RightPatient perfectly complement our existing suite of patient data integrity solutions by guarding against creation of new duplicate and overlaid patient records at the point of registration, while we focus on creating and maintaining a pristine MPI/EMPI environment and supporting rapid and accurate patient identification,” said Lora Hefton, executive vice president of the Harris Data Integrity Solution (DIS) Business Unit. “This partnership advances our ability to address key health information issues by reducing the volume of potential duplicate medical records while securing patient information and minimizing the ongoing cost of maintaining quality patient data.”

Mohu Sultana, CEO of RightPatient adds: “We live in a very uncertain time. Increased cybersecurity threats put hospitals at risk of losing millions of dollars due to medical identity theft. The long-term impact of COVID-19 is also a critical factor in properly treating patients as we move forward – hospitals must know who is who to ensure proper treatment plans. Reliable patient identification is more important than ever. Our partnership with Harris demonstrates the commitment of both organizations to protecting the entire community against financial loss while ensuring patient safety.”

RightPatient provides the healthcare industry with the most accurate, scalable, hygienic, and versatile HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based photo biometric patient identification service that also publishes patient photos in health records, wristbands, and other applications to improve patient safety.

With easy implementation and seamless integration into any electronic health record (EHR) system – including the SmartID Platform from QuadraMed – RightPatient solutions reduce denied claims, lower medical errors because of misidentification, and prevent duplicate medical records. They also ensure accurate patient identification at any point along the care continuum while protecting medical records against unauthorized access, ransomware attacks and other data breaches.

From data analysis to cleanups, Just Associates performs the critical tasks necessary for hospitals and health systems to achieve and maintain a highly accurate and quality MPI. Its state-of-the-art suite of identity management solutions and services includes continuous duplicate detection with IDSentry – which features HIM workflow and dashboard tools and identifies more true duplicates than systems relying on basic and intermediate patient matching algorithms – as well as IDManage for ongoing MPI management and IDResolve for customized MPI clean-up services.

QuadraMed brings together the expertise, systems knowledge and technology that enable delivery of tailored, value-added solutions that improve healthcare organizations’ financial outcomes and business processes while supporting delivery of quality patient care. Its flagship SmartID Platform is a HIPAA-compliant EMPI management platform that diagnoses, treats, and cures errors, delivering real-time duplicate and overlay detection and robust enterprise-wide patient search based on a probabilistic algorithm with up to 99% accuracy in matching patient records.

To learn more about integration of RightPatient into the MPI/EMPI patient matching and data integrity management solutions from Harris DIS, visit Just Associates’ virtual booth during the AHIMA21 Virtual Conference, taking place through Sept. 22, 2021.