Unique identification of patients is critical to the delivery of effective health services. The ability to identify each patient in the health system uniquely ensures that patient records can be linked between health facilities and services, or for referrals. It is also critical for surveillance purposes, as it prevents individuals presenting with the same symptoms to different health facilities from being counted more than once.

Why SanteMPI stood out for the Ministry of Health and Social Services

A common strategy to unique identification is the establishment of a master patient index (MPI). An MPI in its basic form is a list with all individuals in the health system with an assigned unique number, a Health ID. Health providers can search and retrieve the Health IDs of patients. Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) expressed the need for an MPI, and UCSF collaborated with MOHSS to develop one. There are two major open source solutions for MPIs available, which are SanteMPI and OpenCR. After a careful evaluation, MOHSS and its partners selected SanteMPI for a pilot as it met most of the Ministry’s requirements.

Across Namibia, multiple Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are often used to collect patient data in health facilities. Each EMR assigns a unique system identifier for every patient. This can result in the creation of duplicate patient records across the EMRs which presents difficulties in generating data-driven reports and decisions.

SanteMPI is a digital health systems solution developed by Sante Suite Inc. It is a leading next generation master patient index (MPI) platform that is open source and a digital public good. The UCSF team in Namibia has customized it to include real-time validation of national identifiers against the Namibia National Population Registry (NPRS), while closely collaborating with Sante Suite Inc.

SanteMPI ensures accurate patient data

It is set up centrally, and accessible from facilities via the Health Information Exchange framework. In addition, SanteMPI generates a unique Health ID for each individual in the system. This Health ID is a unique 7-character string, that uniquely identifies each individual in the health system. When a patient accesses care, the EMR queries the MPI to search for the patient using a variety of demographic attributes. If the patient is found, their Health ID is returned; else the patient’s national identifiers (passports, birth certificates, identification cards) are validated against the NPRS, a Health ID is issued and a Patient Health Identity Card is printed which carries the Health ID, also in a barcode-scannable format.

With the adoption of the SanteMPI, the Namibia Ministry of Health and Social Services is now able to receive accurate data for all patients who have received care, while also assigning unique identifiers to new patients. Eventually this will help build a shared health record across the multiple electronic records for the patients and improve the reports that lead to informed and quality health programmatic decisions for the country. Some of UCSF’s contributions have made it back into SanteMPI, demonstrating a successful model of the enhancements of digital global goods.