A critical component of the Master Patient Index is the Patient's current contact information. One of the most important aspects of a patient relationship is the ability to communicate with the patient. In order to do this, it is imperative that contact information be accurate, complete, and validated as correct, including mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. Unfortunately, this information in most patient information systems is inaccurate and incomplete.
While no Master Patient Index is likely to ever have 100% accurate contact information, the accuracy of contact data within the master record can be significantly increased by validating and ensuring the accuracy of patient contact data when it is captured from the patient. Data quality initiatives can be achieved by using real-time contact data validation capabilities that utilize comprehensive reference data over the Internet to ensure provided mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses are correct and valid. This enables inaccuracies to be resolved on the spot before the information ever enters the Patient Information System.
StrikeIron's Contact Verification Suite for Healthcare is built for exactly this purpose. This “data-as-a-service” approach enables provided contact information to be validated in real time. Data is aggregated from multiple sources, frequently updated and maintained for accuracy. The architecture and subscription model requires no CapEx spending, no ongoing reference data to update, no additional servers to purchase or maintain, and 24x7x365 availability. Finally, the business model is very flexible as pricing is based on the number of patient records.
Implementing an integrated data quality solution as a core initiative within the healthcare organization can yield a broad array of benefits. Financial ROI analysis will demonstrate the potential for improved cash flow and bottom line impact. Less defined returns will include improved patient satisfaction, employee morale/efficiency, and customer service. Leveraging Data-as-a-Service will maximize the ease of implementing such capabilities and minimize interruption to current workflow. Data quality then moves from an attractive proposition to an imperative for the organization.
Leverages Informatica Cloud to enable high quality, verified contact record data via StrikeIron’s Contact Record Verification Suite
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Amazon's new SES (Simple Email Service) product is a scalable, transaction-based offering for programmatically sending large amounts of email. This is accomplished using Amazon's Web-scale architecture, most especially for applications that already use EC2 (server rental) and S3 (storage rental). By utilizing SES you are essentially leveraging the "Cloud" to send emails from applications and Web sites rather than investing in your own software and hardware infrastructure to do so. This process substantially reduces cost and complexity as do most Cloud services and in this case requires only a simple API call. There is no network configuration or email server setup required in this process.
However, there are some significant restrictions to consider that Amazon has imposed on the user. The SES service will only let you start out with a limited quota until you build a "good reputation" within their system. The initial limit is 200 emails per day. This will increase substantially once you build your reputation within Amazon’s service.
One criteria used to "build your reputation" within Amazon is based on number of bouncebacks or emails that could not be delivered because the email address is invalid or has been disabled. Having a clean, verified email list prior to and during your ongoing use of the service is extremely important to minimize the number of bouncebacks you receive. If your use of SES returns a large number of bouncebacks from non-working email addresses, your quota will not be raised and you may be disqualified from using the system. Multiple bouncebacks can really hurt your reputation and will prevent you from being able to fully maximize Amazon's SES product.
Fortunately, you can use another Cloud-based service (available from StrikeIron) for verifying the validity of an email address before using Amazon's SES service (or any other email service). It is another simple API check that will indicate if a given email address is not valid (an actual non-intrusive, real-time check across the Web without ever sending an actual email). This is exactly one of the primary uses of StrikeIron's Email Verification Service- building email service provider reputation by significantly reducing bouncebacks and staying off of spam lists which can kill your ability to communicate with customers and prospective customers electronically.
As email technology becomes more sophisticated, so should those of us who make use of these technologies especially when it is so easy. The business upside can be dramatic and provide great results for companies.