Years in the making, the
Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Education and Research Foundation (DFWHC
Foundation) has developed and launched the Regional Enterprise Master Patient
Index (REMPI). REMPI allows for the tracking of regional readmissions among
hospitals participating in the Information and
This innovative service
was two years in development and uses QuadraMed software. Participating
hospitals will now be able to trend regional readmission patterns, emergency
room visits and other patient/hospital encounters across hospitals and systems.
“We believe this is an innovational
tool for the future,” said W. Stephen Love, president and CEO of the
Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council and DFWHC Foundation board member. “We also
believe this tool will open new areas of research and exploration for the
continued improvement of healthcare. While many companies can track a single
hospital’s readmissions, REMPI tracks across all participating hospitals and is
a regional master patient index that incorporates an all-payor data
warehouse.”
HOW IT WORKS
The service provides
evaluation of patient readmission patterns across the region, regardless of
which hospital is accessed by a patient. Using the proprietary matching
algorithm, 7,364,432 inpatient records admitted from 2003 - 2008 have been
processed and made available for patient safety and quality analysis by participating
hospitals of the DFWHC Foundation.
The evaluations are
provided as reports. These reports are generated through an IBM-based business
intelligence tool, Cognos. The IBM
Cognos 8 Business Intelligence delivers the complete range of BI capabilities
on a single, service-oriented architecture (SOA). Author, share, and use
reports that draw on data across all enterprise sources for better business
decisions.
“Our data warehouse,
offers more than 10 years of data,” said
The service complies with
HIPAA and
RESEARCH
Research and the ability
to link readmissions will be an important utilization of the REMPI service.
“When considering the
possibilities of the service and the depth of the regional data warehouse, REMPI
can inform new research for epidemiologic and public health purposes,” Dr.
The Foundation is
considering funded research opportunities.
FUTURE
Outpatient information
such as emergency department, ambulatory surgery, observation and imaging
encounters will be phased into the matches over the next four quarters. REMPI
could also be utilized as a patient record linking methodology of both
inpatient and outpatient claims for a Regional Healthcare Information Exchange.
“REMPI exemplifies the
mission of the DFWHC Foundation to continually improve the community’s health
by supporting safe, cost effective and equitable healthcare through education,”
said Jenkins. “In fact, the service could be used for process improvement, care
coordination and reducing healthcare costs. Based upon the increased national
focus on rehospitalization, this service provides substantial value for
planning and improvement purposes for hospitals. When you consider the
importance of a Healthcare Information Exchange, we believe we have been able
to provide an important tool. REMPI will evolve. It’s important to continue to
improve the abilities of this service so we can further understand and improve
healthcare in
INFORMATION
Companies interested in
research projects and hospitals interested in learning more about participating
in the Information and Quality Services Center should contact the DFWHC
Foundation at 972.719.4900 or email foundation-information@dfwhc.org.