MEDITRAIN Success Stories
Summit Health Medical Records Project
In August 2001, John Lucabaugh, Director of Health and Information Management at Summit Health, was looking for a timely and efficient solution to his multi site medical records system.
With 2 seperate MEDITECH client server sites, records management had set up an enterprise medical record number for a new MEDITECH Health System. This involved performing multi-facility medical record number merges so that all of the patient's medical record numbers both facilities appeared under the enterprise number.
MEDITRAIN Selection
On the decision to select MEDITRAIN to perform the contract, Lucabaugh says,
"MEDITRAIN is well known for the scripts that it utilizes in conjunction
with MEDITECH to perform master patient index merges. I contacted 3
references and they all had favorable experiences/success when working
with MEDITRAIN."
Customized Automated Merge Process
Using PC Anywhere, MEDITRAIN prepared and ran a customized NPR Report providing a match on patients with exact criteria provided by site IS management.
MEDITRAIN staff then proceeded to prepare and script the data as follows:
Download the NPR file to the PC and perform various edits on the data at the PC level. In consultation with hospital IS Management, numerous edits were completed to spec.
Removed records from the original file will be kept in a log file and made available for management review. Appropriate captions indicated reason for removal.
Within the remaining matching merge groups, records were sorted in descending order by last visit date.
The actual merging process then began. With precise specifications on the merge process, MEDITRAIN ran a sample merge of records, which were then passed to site management for review. The sample merge records and error log file were carefully checked for accuracy and integrity. After verification, the automated merge process completed the project. Records that produced possible error messages (patient in use, incomplete record, etc) could not be merged and were sent to an error file with appropriate caption indicating reason for non-merge.
Automating the Merge process was both a time and money saver, as Lucabaugh explains,
"We did an analysis of what it would cost us to have temporary labor complete the project and it was cheaper to use the MEDITRAIN script and more accurate than it was
to utilize temporary workers."
And of course automated merges remove human error, which can readily happen when dealing with tens of thousands of records.
Successful Completion
With more than 25 years of combined experience, Project Lead Graham Piercey and Lead Programmer Bryan Power successfully completed the Automated Merge.
"The quality of the work was superb. The technical staff was highly experienced in knowing what questions to ask and how to go about making the project a success. I thought that Graham and Brian were great to work with. Anytime I asked them to re-run the NPR based on a change we might have made to keep the project rolling they accommodated my needs in a timely fashion."
John Lucabaugh
New Projects
The success of the initial project led to MEDITRAIN merging records across four more facilities associated with the Chambersburg/Waynesboro sites.
"I would highly recommend MEDITRAIN to any other hospital that is looking to do a multi-facility merge like we did. Thanks to MEDITRAIN we now have a master patient index that contains 6 facilities and is highly accurate which leads to improved patient care and satisfaction."
John Lucabaugh
