Building a Trusted Identity Foundation for a Seamless, System-Wide Patient Journey

Despite significant investments in digital transformation, the health system faced a critical and costly barrier: its identity data was fragmented across multiple legacy Master Patient Indexes (MPIs) and siloed systems. This fragmentation made it impossible to follow patients across hospitals, outpatient centers, joint ventures (such as labs), and affiliated imaging locations—and left the organization’s leadership unable to answer essential questions central to patient loyalty and retention.

The lack of a unified identity also had operational impacts, with $800K spent annually on manual data cleanup and another $1M in labor required to resolve more than 300,000 duplicate records. These disconnected identities introduced clinical risk, delayed care, and created redundant procedures, collectively driving millions in avoidable medical costs.

Leadership ultimately acknowledged a core truth: without a single, trusted, unified identity foundation, the organization could not innovate, reduce leakage, or deliver the seamless, system-wide patient journey envisioned through Sofia’s Journey.

During a cross-functional, “badges-off” strategy session with internal teams and joint venture partners, everyone aligned on a foundational truth:

An exceptional patient experience—and real patient loyalty—would only be possible if Sofia’s identity was consistent everywhere she engaged.

Sofia’s Journey became the guiding north star, forcing the organization to confront identity fragmentation head-on and prioritize system-wide identity modernization.

With identity unified across more than 20 sources, the health system can now see their patients’ complete journey across hospitals, joint ventures, labs, and outpatient care. They consolidated 80,000 duplicates, eliminated over $1M in manual cleanup costs, saved $1.2M annually through improved care encounters, and onboarded 25,000+ employees with a consistent identity.

The organization could now identify where patients stayed loyal, where leakage occurred, and which operational changes improved retention.

For the first time, the system had a complete, trusted, real-time view of its patients, unlocking the insights required to deliver a smooth, connected, system-wide experience.