Patient Matching Criteria

Patient Matching Criteria

Description

The TouchWorks interface uses specific criteria in order to complete a patient match. This article explains the necessary requirements and is valid as of TouchWorks v11.1.

In order to match properly, TouchWorks relies on the Last name, First name and two of the following three items: MRN, DOB, SSN. A more detailed description is shown below.

Fields

Last Name

This element is required and TouchWorks uses the first 5 letters of the last name for matching purposes.

First Name

This element is required and TouchWorks uses the first 3 letters of the first name for matching purposes. .

Medical Record Number

Also known as the MRN, this field is optional, but two of the three optional fields must be present to match.

Date of Birth

Also known as DOB, this field is optional, but two of the three optional fields must be present to match.

Social Security Number

Also known as SSN, this field is optional, but two of the three optional fields must be present to match.

Other Considerations

In shared multi-org environments where there can be multiple practice management systems, the MRN may not be available as matching criteria because the patient could exist in mulitple orgs with different MRN's. This becomes a problem if SSN is not available. Some patients refuse to give out their SSN at registration, and some PM systems only store the last 4 digits. The use of an eMPI can solve this problem by linking a patient that exists in multiple systems to a single MRN which becomes the primary identifier in the EHR.