The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a companion guide to accompany ONC’s Project US@ (‘Project USA’) Technical Specification Final Version 1.0.
The companion guide offers unified, cross-standards development organization, healthcare industry-wide operational best practices related to accurate and timely capture and management of patient addresses developed in Project US@ Technical Specification Final Version 1.0. It can be used by health information and healthcare professionals to enhance patient identification and matching.
Correctly matching patients to their accurate health data is critical, but according to the Patient ID Now coalition, a lack of widespread operational principles as well as limitations in processes and technologies result in inaccurate patient identification, putting patients and providers at risk.
Lauren Riplinger, AHIMA’s vice president of policy and government affairs, said the Project US@ Companion Guide is vital because its operational best practices will help health information professionals improve patient identification and matching, which is the goal of the technical specification. Riplinger added that AHIMA is honored ONC chose to collaborate with the association.
Riplinger said healthcare organizations should review the Project US@ Companion Guide now so they can begin implementing the technical specification.
