Patient-matching is an increasingly complex task and one that plagues every hospital, doctor’s office, laboratory, and healthcare facility, and there’s been no shortage of patient horror stories to underscore the issue. In fact, some providers are reporting that up to 20 percent of their patients’ records may contain duplicate entries for the same individual. This pervasive problem risks patient safety and wastes money on unnecessary tests and procedures and can sometimes lead to a difference as high as $1,950 for an inpatient stay and up to $800 for an ER visit.

So, what is the root cause of this issue? The truth is that there is no single attributable cause but rather, a host of contributing factors often triggered by a rushed patient intake experience, including: typos; misunderstandings words or phrases from language barriers; highly stressed friends and family not conveying pertinent information effectively; and a lack of communication when names change or life circumstances occur.

Our own Randy Jones had the opportunity to dive into the duplicate records conundrum -- highlighting some of these challenges in Electronic Health Reporter and offering his perspective on how Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) technology may provide the solution.

To learn more about ARGO’s EMPI solution, IntegrityID, and how it is helping healthcare professionals mitigate the duplicate records problem, click here.