News: Physicians put past medical records to use to fight measles outbreak

It’s a fact often cited by CDI professionals: An accurate and complete medical record can serve several important purposes—from correct coding and billing, to accurate quality measures, to better patient care. Now, hospitals in New York, Illinois, Texas, and California are using patients’ records to fight the measles outbreak, according to Reuters.

NYU Langone Health, for example, uses EHR alerts built by Epic to signal providers when one of their patients lives in an outbreak area, based on zip code, and to alert providers as to which patients are unvaccinated. NYU Langone Health serves patients in two New York counties considered epicenters of the outbreak. Their goal is to assess every patient who comes to any of their hospitals in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

Sutter Health, based in Sacramento, California, also plans to start using EHR alerts to signal physicians about patients’ vaccination status, but currently have put a screening questionnaire in place to help identify patients who either are unvaccinated or live and an outbreak area, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. That way, when the patient arrives at the facility, the staff can be adequately prepared and take the necessary precautions. 

In hopes of stopping the spread of the disease, Epic released a how-to guide to their clients in April with instructions for using EHR alerts to combat the outbreak. While not every hospital has jumped on the bandwagon, those in heavily affected areas are taking every precaution possible.

Editor’s note: To read Retuers’ coverage of this story, click here. To read Becker’s Hospital Review’s coverage of this story, click here. To read more about how CDI professionals can make a difference when it comes to EHR use, click here.