What is the first step in integrating health care computer systems?

The first step in integrating health care computer systems is establishing an enterprise master patient index (EMPI). The EMPI serves as a critical foundational element in healthcare data integration by providing a unique identifier for each patient across various systems. This ensures that patient data from disparate sources can be accurately matched and linked, thus facilitating seamless interoperability among different healthcare providers' systems.

When implementing an EMPI, healthcare organizations can avoid duplicate records and inaccuracies that often arise from using multiple identifiers. It allows for a comprehensive view of a patient's health history, which enhances care coordination, quality of care, and patient safety.

While data marts, data repositories, and data warehouses play important roles in managing and storing health data, they do so at a stage that typically follows the establishment of a reliable index for patient identification. These systems can leverage the master patient index to ensure that the data being pulled into financial reports, analytics, or storage repositories is accurate and representative of the actual patient population. Thus, laying the groundwork with an EMPI is crucial for effective data integration.