Whether it’s waking up to begin your day or having a faultless starting launch in an Olympic sport, getting off the right start is crucial. Accurate and consistent patient registration within a healthcare organization is no different, according to a case study and information being presented at the American Health Information Management Association’s (AHIMA) 90th Annual Convention & Exhibit in Miami.
“Patient Registration and Doing It Right the First Time” highlights the importance of the patient registration process in ensuring an organization’s interoperability standards. The presentation also uses AHIMA tools and examples to demonstrate the benefits of completing a registration correctly, as well as the implications that can arise if there are inconsistencies.
“When errors are made during the registration process, it can be challenging for health information management professionals and potentially dangerous for patients,” said Nicole Miller, MS, RHIA, CEO of Miller And Miller Associates USA, LLC. “Similar to how an Olympic luge athlete must have a good start to have a great run, completing a patient’s registration process correctly the first time can mean the difference between a good or bad experience throughout a health organization.”
Miller, who is co-presenting with Lee Wise, MS, RHIA, CHCO, health information director at Clinch Valley Medical Center, suggests that an organization-wide protocol be established through an agreed-upon data governance plan. This plan involves the training of all staff—not only those who most often conduct the registration process—to ensure everyone at an organization is well versed in the data standards.
Miller and Wise also suggest several pros and cons regarding the registration process, mentioning that when a patient is initially registered in a system correctly, it minimizes the possibility for duplicate records as the patient moves throughout an organization, lessening the risk of incorrect treatment for the patient and implications for the health system.
Some suggested tips for ensuring consistent patient registration throughout an entire organization include:
- Establish standards and processes within an organization for the initial registration entry, in both centralized and decentralized registration departments. This can mean using all capital letters, entering all birthdates or addresses in the exact same format, etc.
- Create a staff specifically to support and maintain this standards system. A data integrity team should always include a health information management (HIM) professional and ensure that daily registrations are correct.
- Put penalties into place if there are errors being made. It is important that the standards system is enforced, so it is recommended that the designated HIM professional provides feedback to employees who have made errors and acknowledges correct entries as well.
