Utah HIE picks cloud solution to manage patient identities

UHIN is seeking to improve its ability to match patients with records as the result of a new contract with NextGate, which offers a cloud-based solution.

UHIN—the health information exchange for Utah—selected the enterprise master patient index solution to support improved patient identification and interoperability in the state.

The vendor, which manages patient identities for two-thirds of the US population, will replace the existing patient matching software from IBM. UHIN provides electronic medical records exchange and Direct secure messaging software for 95 percent of the state’s hospitals and 90 percent of large clinics.

The HIE handles more than 214 million claims records and 6 million clinical patient records. The EMPI enables providers to see a patient’s complete care journey with analytics and quality reporting capabilities for providers participating in value-based care programs. This ensures providers have complete and accurate information, says Brian Chin, CEO at UHIN.

“Consistently connecting the right data to the right individual is a core requirement in the ever-growing digitized environment, and we are dedicated to supporting members with technology that will reduce errors, improve decision-making, and improve the overall patient experience,” Chin adds.


With IBM leaving, the organization is gathering baseline data to be able to get the same patient-matching quality as it previously had, says Matt Hoffman, MD, chief medical information officer.

“We’re hoping to soon start looking at the normalization of patient addresses through a postal service application programming interface to resolve addresses,” he explains.

UHIN also will combine claims and data to get ready to conduct analytics so doctors can see the comprehensive medical record with all of the holes filled.

“We further are exploring connecting to a change-of-address database,” Hoffman continues. “We will get data loaded then start turning on the nobs and dials and compare the previous duplication rate compared to now and after the changeover, and look forward to an increased ability to use APIs.”