Grants

Testing a system of voluntary patient identification associated with health records to improve outcomes and reduce costs

The goal of this project is to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs and give patients control over their health records by having a voluntary patient identifier associated with each health record, which will demonstrate the ability to reduce patient-identification errors through the use of a voluntary universal healthcare identifier (VUHID). The error rate is roughly 8 to 10 percent in using current methods to match patients from two different medical records, which leads to duplicate records, lost information and substantial wasted time and money, and accounts for a significant fraction of the deaths from medical error in this country. This is a two-phase project. During Phase 1, Western Health Information Network (WHIN) will test VUHID with a subset of WHIN's Los Angeles patient population to determine if this approach can accurately identify patients and accurately link patient records across health care providers. In Phase 2, WHIN will then use the technology and lessons learned to rapidly deploy identifier cards, while concurrently performing an analysis of the value delivered by their use.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $729,705.00

Awarded on: 4/4/2011

Time frame: 4/15/2011 - 4/14/2012

Grant Number: 68195

Grantee

Long Beach Network for Health d/b/a Western Health Information Network

333 West Broadway, Suite 208
P.O. Box 92289
Long Beach, CA, 90809-2289

562-436-2923
Website

Laura Landry
Project Director

562-436-2923
Email

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