VUHID System

The VUHID system works in conjunction with the regional Enterprise Master Person Index (EMPI) that oversees the sharing of your clinical information between the care delivery organizations in your area. Figure 4 shows that an EMPI is responsible for linking hospitals, clinics, physicians' offices, and other medical organizations within a region. The VUHID facility only communicates electronically with the EMPI systems across the country.

When you are treated in a clinic, physician's office, or hospital they each assign you their own "internal" identification numbers. In fact, they may assign you multiple numbers -- one for radiology tests, another for laboratory tests, a third for billing purposes, and a fourth for quality assurance reporting. It is the EMPI's job to keep all these identification numbers straight. It does this by providing two key functions that make clinical information sharing possible 1) demographic matching and 2) identifier cross-mapping. To perform demographic matching an EMPI gathers key "demographic" information about you such as your name, date of birth, mother's maiden name, address, Social Security Number, telephone number, etc. It then compares this information to data stored in its database to determine if it "knows" who you are. If it does know who you are then it uses this information to link to your clinical information in the various medical facilities that are part of its domain. This is the EMPI "demographic matching" function. Once the EMPI has identified who you are using demographic matching it can then go about mapping the various identifiers relating to you that have been created across all the medical facilities that are part of its domain. This is the EMPI "cross-mapping" function. Thus, the EMPI "knows" who you are even though you are represented by many different identifiers in many different situations. Because of this capability, when you receive a new VUHID identifier it is the EMPI that can ensure that this new identifier will be properly cross-linked to all of your existing identifiers. As a result it is possible for the VUHID/EMPI combination to establish a comprehensive medical record for you despite the fact that your information is scattered across many different identifiers.

When and how will I be able to obtain an identifier?

The VUHID system is nearing the end of the planning phase and the beginning of the system creation phase. It will likely take six to twelve months to create the actual operational system. As milestones for this effort become better defined they will be posted on this web site to enable people to be apprised of progress that has been made.

Once the VUHID system is operational then participating EMPI systems will need to sign up to participate in the VUHID network. Once that has occurred you will be able to apply for VUHID identifiers; both open identifiers (OVIDs) and private identifiers (PVIDs). Figure 5 shows the process used to obtain an open identifier.

To obtain these identifiers you will need to provide sufficient demographic information -- your name, address, birth date, telephone number, Social Security Number, etc. -- to unambiguously identify yourself to the EMPI. Note that this information is sent to the EMPI so that it can identify you but that none of this information is ever sent to the VUHID. Instead the EMPI will simply request an identifier from the VUHID. When it receives the requested identifier the EMPI will perform the link between the new identifier and your personal information. In this way your personal information always remains under the control of the local healthcare environment. There is never an attempt to create any kind of national information base where your information could be compromised by a mistake or an attack by a hacker.