| Abstract | Legacy systems have proven to be long-term integration challenges
for Intermountain Health Care (IHC) despite commitment
and attention to share clinical information across settings
and among clinicians. This study measures the extent of the disparity
of data elements across three independent data systems in
current use. A sample of relevant data elements was selected
across systems covering prenatal, labor and delivery, and newborn
intensive care units (NICU). The findings revealed only
17% of these sample data elements had compatible structure
across all three systems. The implications from differences in
granularity, missing data, and duplicate data entry, include diminished
data quality, greater risk for medical error, increased
costs of integration and inefficient use of clinician time. Retrospective
guidelines for managing conceptual context and granularity
are given to assist in designing an integrated longitudinal
patient electronic medical record. |