The Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) has worked with Mississippi-based Hattiesburg Clinic to establish an automated system for sharing clinical data in real time, according to a recent announcement.
On Aug. 1, DOM successfully linked its beneficiary data analysis system, MedeAnalytics, with Hattiesburg Clinic’s electronic health record (EHR). MedeAnalytics established DOM’s Medicaid Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) back in 2014 as the core identity management system to allow easier management of a Medicaid patient’s longitudinal record. From there, they worked with DOM to standardize the Medicaid clinical EMPI to support a clinical data interface with its external stakeholders, according to officials.
This new system aims to equip clinicians with enhanced medical history information about their Medicaid patients within seconds. So far, officials noted, both DOM and Hattiesburg have shared clinical information on 20,000 individual Medicaid patients, or 100,000 total shared clinical reports. Mississippi is the first state in the nation to establish this method for leveraging Medicaid technology and resources to directly benefit the doctor/patient experience, they attested.
Hattiesburg Clinic is the second such clinical exchange and the second largest provider of Mississippi Medicaid beneficiaries. DOM built its first connection with the largest provider, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), in early 2016.
This approach, known as the Clinical Data Interoperability Program, provides two-way communication between DOM’s database and the provider. The concept is: DOM has an electronic system for storing and managing its beneficiary records, and this database includes up-to-date information such as a beneficiary’s prescribed medications, allergies and other historical details. MedeAnalytics and DXC Technology, an independent, end-to-end IT services company, together built a platform to enable DOM to communicate with Hattiesburg’s EHR.
DXC’s services-enabled OXi Platform utilizes industry standard technologies and connections such as HL7 and RESTful web services to connect new stakeholders in support of DOM’s goal to collect, aggregate and share Medicaid clinical data to improve Medicaid beneficiary care and overall program management, officials noted.
Then, after connectivity is established, everything is automated. When a patient schedules an appointment with the clinic or is admitted to the hospital, the EHR queries DOM if it has patient information. If the patient is a current or former beneficiary, within seconds the system will send a clinical summary to the EHR. When the patient’s treatment is completed and the individual is discharged, the EHR sends an updated summary back to DOM. If there are a number of different tests or procedures performed, DOM will receive those updates.
“This system is providing the Mississippi Division of Medicaid the opportunity to help improve the doctor/patient experience more cost effectively,” David J. Dzielak, Ph.D., executive director of DOM, said in a statement. “Sharing resources where we can is one way a state agency like Medicaid can make a significant impact. And exchanging data with providers through this system is one small way Medicaid can help.”
