General Hospital knew they had issues with duplicate health records and needed to clean up the master patient index (MPI) before the implementation date for the electronic health record (EHR) to get the best results. A consulting firm was hired, and a review of the data confirmed this problem when they identified over 3,000 potential duplicate health records issued over the past five years. The hospital started the MPI cleanup process by educating their patient registration staff on proper search strategies, questions to ask the patient, the importance of a unit health record, and other related topics. This education was an important first step so that additional duplicate health records would not be assigned while the cleanup process was going on. Once the training was complete, the consulting firm began cleaning up the MPI. The consultants reviewed the potential duplicate health records and merged the health records where appropriate. They ensured the health records were merged in other information systems used throughout the healthcare organization. They provided documentation to General Hospital showing which health records were and were not duplicates based on their review. They also provided statistics on which admission clerks created duplicate health records, and the departments (admissions, emergency department, outpatient services and others) that created the duplicates.

What would you include in the training?
What role can consultants play in the MPI clean up?
Why did the facility find themselves in this situation?
What steps can the facility take to prevent this situation from happening in the future?