Patient identity (MPI, MRN), registration and insurance capture, appointment scheduling and templates, and admission-discharge-transfer events that drive the whole EHR.
Patient identity comes first
Slide 1 / 5
Every record hangs off the patient's identity:
• MRN (medical record number) — the organization's unique ID for the patient.
• MPI / EMPI (enterprise master patient index) — the database that links all of a patient's identifiers across systems.
• Matching uses name, date of birth, sex, address, phone, SSN (last 4), photo.
Errors cause duplicates (one person, two charts — results get split) or overlays (two people merged into one chart — dangerous). HIM teams resolve duplicates; registration accuracy prevents them.