By Liz Buckle, Director of Product, CommonWell Health Alliance
LinkedIn: Liz Buckle
LinkedIn: CommonWell Health Alliance
In the complex landscape of health information exchange (HIE), ensuring that the right patient data is connected and accessible across multiple healthcare providers is crucial. Two essential technologies that make this possible are the Master Patient Index (MPI) and the Record Locator Service (RLS). While each plays a unique role, their combined power enables seamless, accurate, and efficient data exchange. CommonWell Health Alliance integrated these technologies into its network from day one and has recently enhanced them to support scalable interoperability and improve patient care.
The Master Patient Index (MPI) is a critical component of an effective national network. Its primary function is to create and maintain an index of all patient instances and their demographics under a single person. While there is only one me, there are many instances of me as a patient across the various care settings where I have been seen. The index links a patient’s demographic data from different sources, ensuring that all records associated with that individual are accurately matched, even when there are variations, such as nicknames or historical addresses. CommonWell’s MPI ensures that each patient is consistently identified across our network, reducing the risk of duplicate records and misidentification. The MPI functions primarily through advanced algorithms but also allows users to manually adjudicate probable or near matches. By linking patient records across different systems, the MPI enables a comprehensive view of the patient’s health history, allowing healthcare providers to make informed clinical decisions.
The Record Locator Service (RLS) works seamlessly with the MPI to create a virtual table of contents of where a patient’s data is located. While the MPI focuses on patient identification, the RLS is responsible for locating where a patient’s records are stored across different healthcare organizations. When a healthcare provider needs access to a patient’s records, the MPI and RLS work together to know who the patient is and where their data resides. A single query can retrieve clinical data from all locations where the patient has received care. CommonWell’s RLS plays a crucial role by efficiently locating records across our nationwide network, removing the need to guess where the data is or conduct inefficient searches based on geography or zip code.
The synergy between the MPI and RLS is not just a technical achievement; it has real-world implications for patient care. By ensuring that healthcare providers within the CommonWell network have access to accurate, complete, and up-to-date patient information, these technologies enable better care coordination, reduce the risk of medical errors, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Imagine a scenario where a patient visits multiple healthcare providers over the years. Without the MPI and RLS working together, each provider might only see a fragmented view of the patient’s history, leading to incomplete or incorrect treatment decisions. However, with the MPI linking all records and the RLS efficiently locating them, every provider can access the full picture, ensuring the patient receives the best possible care.
Consider this real-world example: A young woman in her 20s living outside metro Atlanta is diagnosed with asthma. Over the course of a few years, she experiences significant flare-ups, requiring many rounds of steroids to control inflammation. She qualifies for immunology shots to alleviate allergies and reduce asthma flares. She gets pregnant and delivers a full-term, healthy baby. Later, at the age of 28, she is diagnosed with melanoma. She undergoes surgery and is relieved to learn the cancer has not spread but is placed on a strict dermatology follow-up plan. Shortly thereafter, she moves more than 450 miles from Atlanta to the southeastern coast of North Carolina, where she must quickly establish new providers and transfer all of her past medical records. If all of her providers are connected to CommonWell, they have immediate access to her medical history. If some of her providers rely on technology requiring geo-searches of a 50-, 100-, or 200-mile radius, they will come up short.
This real-world example is me. Thankfully, I have been cancer-free for many years, but my health matters, and efficient access to my data matters. This is why the strength of the MPI and RLS working in concert is so important.
In the quest for seamless health information exchange, the collaboration between the Master Patient Index (MPI) and Record Locator Service (RLS) is indispensable. By accurately identifying patients and efficiently locating their records, these technologies work hand-in-hand within CommonWell’s network to support interoperability, enhance care coordination, and improve patient outcomes. They also enable other uses of the network outside of treatment, such as Individual Access Services (Patient Access), Payer Access, and more. As healthcare continues to evolve, the role of MPI and RLS will only become more critical, ensuring that the right information is always available to the right people at the right time.
This article was originally published on Commonwell Health Alliance and is republished here with permission.