Improving Provider Data Quality with a Provider Data Management Platform

Kettering Health leadership had long realized the importance of electronic medical records. However, after migrating from their legacy EHR and implementing Epic, they recognized one particular problem still remained: poor-quality provider data.

No Standardized Data Management

One challenge Kettering Health faced was having multiple owners and teams responsible for maintaining provider information. Multiple analysts and support staff members were tasked with updating schedulable Epic resource (SER) records from disparate locations across the health network. Information was also being added from multiple external directories, exacerbating the problem by creating incorrect and duplicate records.

Siloed Data

Kettering Health leaders also realized that storing crucial provider data across many non-integrated departmental silos was problematic, requiring their Epic team to spend significant time and resources to access and verify provider data from multiple systems. They would then have to blend the mined data with SER records to get a consolidated set of provider information — and even then, the Kettering Health team had modest confidence in the data's quality at best.

Lacking Provider Data Integrity

While Kettering Health's legacy EHR system did not support adequate management of provider information, merely migrating that data into Epic did not solve their data problem. The provider data — particularly for referring providers — in their SER records file was still unreliable due to numerous staff's ability to update or create records without validation of the data.

“It’s so easy with symplr Directory to enroll a referring provider. Just a click of a button and the provider is added to our EHR.”

-Julie Gedart, MSN, RN and Epic Senior Analyst

THE SOLUTION

Implement an Enterprise-wide Provider Data Management Platform

Kettering Health selected symplr Directory (formerly Phynd360) to serve as its enterprise-wide platform to manage all provider data — referring, affiliated, and credentialed.

As part of the initial system configuration, the Kettering Health and symplr implementation project team extracted nearly 20,000 providers, both credentialed and referring, from disparate systems to create the initial, validated profiles in symplr Directory.

By creating a centralized resource for all provider data, Kettering Health is able to efficiently manage, curate, and validate provider information across the enterprise. Previous workflows that existed as separate entities and resulted in duplicated and inaccurate data are now joined to create a one-to-one provider-profile relationship, ensuring data integrity and eliminating wasted staff resources across the health system. Using symplr Directory, Kettering Health end users update provider data in real-time, seamlessly enroll missing providers, and use symplr’s “Unverified Provider” report to quickly find data that requires validation.

“symplr Directory has provided a one stop verification tool for employed, credentialed and referring 
providers.The system is accurate and easy to use...”

-Charles Watson, DO, Chief Medical Information Officer

THE RESULTS

Boosted Operational Efficiency and Productivity 

With the adoption of the symplr Directory platform, Kettering Health:

• Gained a single trusted platform for high-quality provider information management
• Standardized best practices through the workflow process and executed on system improvements
• Ensured the ongoing sustainability of accurate MSOW and Epic provider information
• Enhanced its ability for outreach and business development teams to support referring providers, thereby increase their satisfaction, ensuring they receive accurate patient results, and providing proper system access and privileges
• Established confidentiality of patient information by eliminating misdirected fax results, ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations, and reducing downside risk
• Improved compliance with Ohio State Board of Pharmacy regulations tied to accurate provider information
  

“Kettering Health is committed to ensuring our patients have a best-in-class Find a Doctor search 
experience. Provider Search gives our consumers a user-friendly way to quickly find the provider with the right expertise, that is convenient, and is in network. We now have high-quality provider data, due to multiple teams curating data in symplr Directory, and data being fed continuously to symplr Directory from trusted sources.”

-Charles Watson, DO, Chief Medical Information Officer

Improved Consumer Experience with Advanced Provider Search

Kettering Health’s marketing team decided to improve the patient search experience on its website. It subscribed to symplr’s Provider Search API so consumers can query the symplr Directory provider data platform as a central hub of provider data. By using symplr Directory’s Provider Search API, Kettering now provides consumers with an industry-leading Find a Doctor experience.