Mastering Data Management

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Background
The members of the Douglas County Individual Practice Association (DCIPA) make up nearly 98 percent of all healthcare providers in Oregon’s Douglas County. These 145 physicians serve the health needs of roughly 105,000 citizens throughout the county.

Challenge
DCIPA needed a highly secure and reliable patient identification system to integrate its more than 60 individual practice management systems and other disparate health and clinical information sources across the single-chart electronic health record enterprise.

Solution
DCIPA chooses Initiate software as its EMPI, a specialized form of master data management (MDM), to validate patient identity for an accurate and up-to-date electronic health record solution.

Results
DCIPA physicians throughout the county improved information sharing and patient care with portable, on-demand access to a single, complete electronic health record for each patient.

Several years ago, DCIPA leaders began developing a bold vision of how healthcare could be delivered to better serve the county’s residents, while at the same time complying with the government’s mandate for an electronic health record (EHR) and interoperable systems.

Brent Eichman, DCIPA’s chief financial officer, explained the dilemma: "When we considered some of the industry drivers, such as EHR adoption, interoperability, quality improvement mechanisms and pay-for-performance trends, it was clear that DCIPA members needed an integrated EHR and practice management system that functioned on a community-wide basis."

However, while the physicians were open to an EHR system, they told Eichman they needed more.

"Our physicians responded that the potential benefits of an EHR is great, but if they could not share information with other primary care doctors and specialists within the community, the value of a de-centralized EHR would be greatly diminished," Eichman says.

DCIPA’s leadership team responded with an aggressive strategy of building a community-wide health record network in which each of the county’s residents would have a single record that could be accessed, shared and updated by all DCIPA physicians.

DCIPA is considering integration with the county health department, as well as community physical and mental health centers, a cancer center, and local federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). Read the success story and learn how DCIPA is making history.