The Year Ahead: ONC and AHIMA Project US@ Collaboration for Improved Patient Matching

This article is the first part of a four-part series on the most important topics for health information professionals to be aware of in 2022.

Patient matching is taking a giant step forward with Project US@. Borrowing from Neil Armstrong, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Adoption and use of the Project US@ Technical Specification and the Project US@ AHIMA Companion Guide for patient address will improve identity integrity and the accuracy of patient matching, thereby facilitating interoperability and protecting patient safety. Just like with Neil Armstrong, there was a community of subject matter experts behind the effort that blazed the trail and laid the groundwork for future innovation.

As health information (HI) professionals know well, patient matching has become more complex and, therefore, more challenging, requiring additional investments in systems and processes. The interoperability landscape in the United States has evolved over time, from diverse healthcare providers using different electronic health records (EHRs), to the expansion of consumer supported applications, to improved data exchange across several key areas such as payers and public health. HI professionals work every day to ensure patient identity integrity, regardless of the complexity of the data or from where the data originated.

Project US@ supports this dynamic shift in the healthcare ecosystem by supplying a unified, cross-standards development organization technical specification for patient addresses, coupled with a companion guide containing operational guidance and best practices related to accurate capture and management of patient addresses. As trusted brokers of information, HI professionals are uniquely qualified to champion adoption of Project US@.

Along with this movement toward harmonized technical and operational guidance, we must also drive strategic transformation by insisting this responsibility be shared by all those who develop the technology and those who touch the collection and use of patient address information. On the operations side, this includes front-line registration and scheduling staff and providers, as well as the staff that perform work after the clinical encounter, including back-end coding, billing, and data integrity. On the technical side, EHR vendors must configure their software to conform to the specification and allow collection of patient addresses within the guardrails outlined and in support of guidance and best practices included in the companion guide. The health care organization’s technical team must also be educated on Project US@ and the data fields necessary to support accurate patient identity integrity and patient matching and include them in user screens, patient facing interfaces, and reporting.

Challenges and Opportunities with Standardized Addresses

Patient address is one of those demographic data elements that, if standardized, can improve the accuracy of patient matching in small but significant ways. Project US@ aims to support address standardization and the application of guidance and best practices within and across organizations. There are a few immediate challenges and opportunities that lay ahead as we embark down this journey to improved patient addresses that HIM professionals should be aware of, including but not limited to:

• It takes a lot of time and effort for standards and technical specifications to be developed, for policymakers to consider naming them in regulation, and for health IT developers to adopt, test, and implement them.
  • There is no better time than the present to begin adopting guidance and best practices for patient addresses. Don’t wait until your EHR vendor has adopted the Project US@ Technical Specification; start applying best practices and improving patient addresses now.
• Health IT developers and health care organizations may not yet be aware of Project US@.
  • More information on Project US@, including how to join the effort and the latest version of the Project US@ Technical Specification and the Project US@ AHIMA Companion Guide, are accessible for free on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Project US@ website.
• Applying standards, technical specifications, and best practices consistently across stakeholder groups and data exchange partners (e.g., health information exchanges, public health, etc.) can be daunting, partly due to the myriad systems involved and variation in their technical design, functionality, and standards being used.
  • Project US@ is a unified, cross-standards development organization specification that is built on existing United States Postal Service standards and is flexible enough to be included in a range of clinical and administrative transactions. Work with your stakeholders and exchange partners to help raise awareness and encourage uniformity of practice for patient addresses.

These challenges and correlating opportunities open the door to improving patient safety, decreasing costs, and allowing patients to trust the clinical data leveraged in their wellness journey. Neil Armstrong trusted the professionals supporting him on the journey to the moon. Project US@ is a giant leap forward to trusting that clinical data is accurately linked to the right patient. We are calling on HI professionals to educate on the need for Project US@, nudge their organizations and vendor community forward, and work with emerging technologies on adopting the nation’s first unified specification for patient address.

Deborah Adair (dadair@partners.org) is the executive director of digital enterprise HIM at Mass General Brigham.

Katherine Lusk (katherine.lusk@thsa.org) is the senior director of strategic partnerships with the Texas Health Services Authority.

Rachel Podczervinski (podczervinski@justassociates.com) is the vice president of professional services at Just Associates.

Carmen Smiley (carmen.smiley@hhs.gov) is an IT specialist with the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Office of Technology.