Peninsula Regional Medical Center – Salisbury, MD

PRMC was using McKesson STAR as its registration system and McKesson Horizon Patient Folders as its clinical information system. PRMC was implementing a new access management system, and they were converting their MPI patient numbering system. PRMC was using social security numbers as MRNs and was converting to a 900 numbering system. PRMC wanted to automate the process of this conversion.

Prior to completing the conversion, PRMC requested that Just Associates complete a thorough analysis of the impact the process would have on other information systems, operations and patient safety. Just Associated reviewed all of the ancillary systems, documented the impact the change would have on each department's workflow and estimated resources needed to complete the project with minimal impact to PRMCs operations.

Just Associates conducted a comprehensive evaluation and assessment of the interface engine supporting the patient identifier to understand how a patient identification number would be used across the PRMC system, including:

• How the identifier would be entered into the registration system and how it would be sent to all downstream clinical, ancillary and financial systems
• Whether the downstream systems utilized the MRN within their database as a primary record key
• How the system read inbound message transactions, and utilized the MRN to match to existing records in the database to determine whether the transaction should add a new record or update an existing record
• Evaluation of every point-to-point interface

By understanding at a very granular level how the patient identifier was used, we were able to develop a workflow process that traced the movement of patient identification numbers from entry point (registration) through exit point (discharge) and every possible format in which that number would reside (paper files, computer spreadsheets, etc.).
This information allowed us to rank impacted systems according to specific risk levels, and develop recommendations of how to best approach the conversion within each system. This ensured that the migration to a new patient identification system was conducted in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.