UK HealthCare providing updated flu numbers
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 24, 2023) — UK HealthCare is providing updated flu data to area health departments to correct information not previously reported.
Due to an information technology data systems issue, 2,082 positive flu results from October through early January were not imported and received from UK HealthCare to the Kentucky Health Information Exchange (KHIE), a secure network where hospitals and health care facilities can locate and share patient health information. Through KHIE, the data is then shared with local health departments.
The issue had no impact on patient care during the temporary reporting disruption.
The issue was detected in mid-November and data specialists at UK HealthCare collaborated with KHIE to resolve the problem caused by a coding issue that resulted in disruption of the data flow from Epic, UK HealthCare’s electronic health record system, into the KHIE system.
When a patient tests positive for the flu at one of UK HealthCare’s hospitals – UK Chandler, UK Good Samaritan and UK Kentucky Children’s Hospital – or at a UK HealthCare outpatient clinic, that information is then reported in the KHIE database to the patient’s home county. However, during the time of the reporting outage, the information was not received by the patient’s county health department.
The issue was resolved on Jan. 11, and corrected data was resent to KHIE last week. This data is now accessible to the impacted health departments, which have been notified and are reconciling the backlog of data.
As a result, several health departments in the counties of residence of UK HealthCare patients now have an increased overall number of positive flu results for this flu season.
“We are deeply committed not only to the quality care of our patients but also our responsibility in accurate and transparent reporting of patient care data and worked to resolve this issue and correct data as soon as possible,” said Kimberly Blanton, DNP, chief nursing officer at UK Chandler Hospital. “We also greatly value our relationships with the local health departments in the state, the Kentucky Health Information Exchange and the Kentucky Department of Public Health and are appreciative for their assistance in resolving and reconciling this issue.”
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