Medical records only appeared in digital form in 1972, when the Regenstreif Institute developed the first electronic medical records. Over the past five decades, they have slowly become endemic to the healthcare field. As a result, the need for data integrity in healthcare has increased significantly. In many cases, the accuracy and reliability of healthcare data can be a matter of life or death.
In this blog, we’ll explore why data integrity in healthcare is important, and where a failure to preserve integrity can cause problems. We’ll also address the significance of data integration and explore additional strategies for ensuring patient records remain secure and accurate in the hospital setting. Moreover, this post will provide professional insights to help you maintain data integrity effectively.
Data integrity in healthcare is the accurate and reliable maintenance of patient data, from the moment of creation through the lifetime of a record. It includes everything from personal information to test results.
Not only must this data be accurate, but it must also be added to patient charts efficiently—ideally, as soon as it becomes available. This helps facilitate clear, timely, and correct communication between various members of the patient’s care team. Thus, efficient and accurate translates to higher-quality care.
As a result of heightened clinical data integrity in healthcare, staff will avoid data-driven clinical errors. Likewise, the patient will experience less overall inconvenience during their care. Furthermore, attention to data integrity can help facilities and systems avoid costly data privacy violations.
For instance, examples of failures of data integrity in healthcare settings can include:
Healthcare data often resides in separate systems across different providers, labs, and pharmacies. In turn, data integration brings this information together from a variety of sources to create an accurate and reliable single source of truth. However, if any single source is incomplete or inaccurate, it taints the accuracy of the integrated data. Therefore, organizations must prioritize data integrity in healthcare for data integration to be effective.
When done correctly, data integration creates a complete and comprehensive picture of patient or hospital data as a whole. Consequently, care teams can compare and identify data discrepancies as they occur so they can be corrected, addressed, or reported as necessary. Ultimately, this supports maintaining data integrity in healthcare settings.
Data governance policies define procedures and best practices to ensure healthcare data is:
A complete and comprehensive data governance policy can ensure teams across a hospital system are on the same page regarding data and data integrity. Additionally, it includes clear roles and responsibilities for all individuals, a clear system of data classification, and strong data access controls. Such policies are crucial for hospitals seeking to maintain regulatory compliance.
EHRs provide a central location for storing a patient’s medical history. This reduces the risk of errors and inconsistencies that arise from scattered paper records or siloed systems. For this reason, EHRs are now considered a best practice in most healthcare systems today.
Blockchain is a technology that creates a tamper-proof record of data. Once information is added to a blockchain, it cannot be altered without everyone on the network noticing. This strengthens data integrity in healthcare by preventing unauthorized changes. Thus, it can facilitate secure and controlled sharing and provide enhanced audit trails.
Common challenges to maintaining data integrity in healthcare include:
Fortunately, solutions for these problems depend on following the best practices in healthcare data integrity.
Best practice examples of data integrity in healthcare include:
Data integrity in healthcare settings begins with capturing accurate data. Hospital systems across the country trust American Data Networks with their data abstraction services. By outsourcing, you can reduce the burden on your facility and focus on proactive quality management. Ultimately, we can ensure your patient safety data is accurate, reliable, secure, and actionable.
Additionally, learn more about boosting your data integrity and integration with ADN’s patient safety services.
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