Case Study

Apixio Case Studies Reveal Missing Data in the Community

Harvard Medical School reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that 71% of patients with a past history of splenectomy did not have it documented in their coded problem list in their electronic health record (EHR). The Harvard researchers observed that patients with a history of splenectomy in their coded problem list were three times more likely to receive the recommended pneumococcal vaccination to prevent a potentially deadly bacterial infection.

Apixio has done two important studies to corroborate the Harvard study and uncover issues with missing patient data within the healthcare community. In the first case study, we found that 63% of the time, when a patient has a significant medical condition (e.g. myocardial infarction) in their coded problem list in one EHR, it was missing within EHRs of other providers on the patient’s care team.

The second case study uncovered inconsistent and incomplete data presentation within an enterprise-wide EHR system. We found that 65% of significant medical conditions retrieved in a search of scanned documents within an EHR were not present within the coded problem list. We conclude from these case studies that medically intelligent search of coded data across the community and of scanned and textual data within individual EHR sources is crucial to improve patient safety and care coordination.