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Electronic Master Patient Index Essay

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“Secondary health records are those that are created by abstracting relevant details from the primary records” (Gartee, 2011). Secondary health records are some of the most important resources in a healthcare facility. These records are used for improvement within the facility, insurance claim reimbursement among other important functions. More specifically, the master patient index is one form of secondary health records that helps to prevent duplicate patient charts and provide increased accuracy among medical record data across the various departments and facilities. A master patient index that is accurate, whether it is in a paper or electronic format, “may be considered the most important resource in a healthcare facility because it is the link that tracks patient, person, …show more content…

These electronic indexes replaced the tedious process of completing the master patient index manually using index cards The American Health Information Management Association, 1997). The interest in replacing manual patient indexing with electronic patient indexing has become increasingly more prevalent through the years, especially as the use of the electronic medical record has increased. For healthcare organizations that use electronic medical records, it only makes sense for them to also make use of electronic master patient indexes as well. These two databases work together to manage private patient information and maintain an organized system. As healthcare organizations continue to grow and see more patients, it becomes very easy to see that the practice of maintaining an accurate master patient index is fundamental to the integrity of the electronic medical record database as a whole. An electronic medical record database can become very unorganized and problematic very quickly. The use of the master patient index is absolutely necessary to help prevent this from

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