In the fight to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, two very important things are becoming clear.
First, fighting pandemics depends on data that’s fast, complete, and accurate.
Second, public health emergencies are a people problem, not a patient problem.
As a country, gaps in person data leave us exposed. We’re losing valuable time:
- People are not being notified of their test results because contact information is missing from drive through test results[1]
- Health departments are overwhelmed; teams are making phone calls to track down missing data and manually fix duplicate person records[2]
- Commercial labs are missing as much as 40% of demographic information[1]
- Patients who test positive aren’t notified[1]
- Health systems can’t predict near-term demand due to incomplete data[1]
Beyond notifying patients of test results, health officials and providers need comprehensive data to reach patients at the highest risk and to complete contact tracing, one of the most powerful strategies to combat pandemics. We need to confidently know who is sick, how we contact them, who they live with, where they work, where they hang out, and who their friends are. Verato can help; connectivity of person information is what we are designed for. This includes department of health (DOH) agencies, health systems, HIEs, health plans, and technology vendors.
How Verato can help
Verato Universal Master Person Index (UMPI) and Verato Referential Matching uniquely rely on a comprehensive, continuously updated and highly curated reference database that spans the entire U.S. population. Our solutions augment thin records and match person records across diverse data sources.
As a cloud-based solution, we can deploy rapidly, connect through modern APIs, or even process spreadsheet files to quickly connect data. We provide straightforward, fast ways to:
- Integrate person data across systems and teams that suddenly need to be coordinated
- Connect person records automatically, without manual effort
- Augment records with missing demographic information like phone number and address, so that people don’t need to hunt and peck for this information
- Retrieve information critical to contact tracing
We’re ready to help healthcare organizations and departments of health quickly resolve patient identity issues and fight the spread of COVID-19. To learn how we can help, contact us now.
[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/testing-coronavirus-gaps-162360
[2] https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/flood-of-coronavirus-data-overwhelms-states-disease-reporting-system-leading-to-lag-in-data/