PHI-nd IT™ as a Release of Information (ROI) Tool

PHI-nd IT™ allows an Health Information Management (HIM )department to centralize and standardize all of its ROI activity into one application. The application was built by Universata to be an anytime, anywhere solution for processing medical record information and accessing key intelligence about that activity. It operates equally well at the level of a small physician up to the largest hospital or health system. Universata has core expertise with integration and software development; PHI-nd IT™ was built to integrate into data systems containing data of interest either at the level of a medical record or information about the request, recipient, patient, or type of medical record data contained therein.

The systems that make most sense to integrate with are usually (in order of usefulness) electronic medical record systems (EMR), imaging systems, clinical data systems, business office financial systems, and PACS. Other systems of interest include transcription, chart locators, and other systems containing data commonly requested. Integrating with these systems reduces turnaround time and data re-entry errors. As more efficiencies are gained, the operation changes from release of information to QUALITY of release of information; HIM now has time to more closely evaluate the needs of the patient and the surrounding communities to make sure that the correct information is sent and handled in accordance with the Minimum Necessary Rule.

PHI-nd IT™ allows medical record content to be scanned from paper into a digital format and disclosed by secure online retrieval, fax, site pick up, or mail. The recipient pays for the record with price regulated at state and federal levels. Because the medical record documents all aspects of a person’s health, it is the “lifeblood” of communication in health care and central to business transactions for the healthcare industry and many other industries not obviously connected to healthcare. Working with paper, Universata is able to turn requests for medical record information around in near real-time by using a scanner. In an integrated environment, medical record requests can be processed in milliseconds. PHI-nd IT™ was launched 4Q 2003.

PHI-nd IT™ as a Medical Record Exchange. The eMRX.

During the course of ROI operations, PHI-nd IT™ gathers data about requestors and recipients of all types by volume of work required. It is common for a hospital and its surrounding physician community to account for 12-25% of all requests and deliveries from PHI-nd IT™ when it is operating as the ROI tool at either a hospital (delivering to physicians) or at a clinic (delivering to hospitals). Not reflected in PHI-nd IT™’s ROI activity is the additional movement of medical records by the HIM department for various business-support purposes as part of the HIM mandate.

Finding a way to more effectively move medical record information across an exchange is done intelligently in PHI-nd IT™ and primarily as a Universata sales function by approaching the Top 10 physician and hospital requestors. In the business community, we reach out to Attorneys, Government entities, court systems, and insurance companies to set up the core pieces of the exchange: