Program leaders for the Mount Sinai Medical Record Number effort include, from left, Patricia M. Lamb, MHHA; Marc Napp, MD; and Elena Sethi, Director, Program Management Office, Information Technology.
Beginning at 7 pm on Saturday, December 10, four hospitals within the Mount Sinai Health System will simultaneously convert their medical record numbering systems to one using a Mount Sinai Medical Record Number (MSMRN). The MSMRN is a unique patient identifier that is currently being used at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens, as well as numerous ambulatory practices within the Health System. A medical record number is assigned to each patient when first visiting Mount Sinai—whether for an office visit or hospital stay—and is the key to that patient’s clinical information. The four hospitals participating in the conversion are Mount Sinai West, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and Mount Sinai Brooklyn.
When the conversion is complete, the MSMRNs will reside in one Health System-wide common database, the enterprise Master Patient Index (eMPI), helping to integrate patient data across the Health System and making it accessible from six of the seven Health System hospitals and numerous ambulatory sites.
The project, run by the Program Management Office, involved a number of clinical, operational, and technology teams tasked over the past two years with understanding the complexities of integrating nearly 50 impacted systems and developing the medical record number conversion and reconciliation process, all while maintaining Mount Sinai’s standards of excellence in patient care and safety.
“We have partnered with the Chief Operating Officers and their teams at the four affected hospitals and enlisted assistance from Mount Sinai’s Emergency Management Department to complete this extremely complex project,” says Marc Napp, MD, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, who is leading the project, along with Patricia M. Lamb, MHHA, Chief of Ancillary and Support Services, Mount Sinai Health System. “We appreciate the cooperation and diligence of all involved,” adds Ms. Lamb.
Dr. Napp notes that five fully staffed Command Centers, including one at each of the four hospitals, will provide oversight during the night of the transition. Special focus will be devoted to a critical aspect of the medical record number changeover—the issuance of a new MSMRN wristband for every patient in the four affected hospitals. Dr. Napp says the original wristband will also remain to ensure an additional safety check.
“Moving to a common patient identifier will allow Mount Sinai clinicians to access the most recent and accurate patient information, and lays the foundation for future implementations of the Epic Electronic Medical Record. In this way, the eMPI moves us closer to our institutional goal of one patient, one record, and one Health System,” says Ms. Lamb.