While the healthcare industry increasingly adopts electronic health records (EHRs), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) called for a national patient ID system to improve safety and interoperability.
The statement comes after recent findings by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) showed nearly all hospitals (96 percent) possessed certified EHR technology. Additionally, nearly 84 percent of non-federal acute care hospitals had adopted a basic EHR system with notes through 2015, an increase of 8 percentage points from the year before.
“It is also vital that we come together around a set of standards for achieving interoperability,” read the CHIME statement. “We need to develop standards that allow data to flow seamlessly between care settings, regardless of the application or vendor that’s being used.”
The CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust will soon announce winners of the first phase of its National Patient ID Challenge and open submissions to a final round. This national crowd-sourcing competition aims to find a viable solution for ensuring accurate patient identification.
Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.