From vos0303@doh.wa.gov Mon Oct 18 15:10:26 1999 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id PAA25612 for ; Mon, 18 Oct 1999 15:10:25 -0700 Received: from smtp.doh.wa.gov (hub.doh.wa.gov [192.230.1.5]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.08) with SMTP id PAA31269 for ; Mon, 18 Oct 1999 15:10:25 -0700 Received: from Connect2 Message Router by smtp.doh.wa.gov via Connect2-SMTP 4.32; Mon, 18 Oct 1999 15:10:09 -0700 Message-ID: <4E5B0B3801010700@smtp.doh.wa.gov> Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 17:09:52 -0700 From: "Schueler, Vince" Sender: "Schueler, Vince" To: ph-assess@u.washington.edu Subject: Need for health provider registry? X-SMF-Hop-Count: 2 X-Mailer: Connect2-SMTP 4.32 MHS/SMF to SMTP Gateway The Standards for Public Health call for providing up-to-date information describing health care access. One possible area of need is an expanded state-wide health provider registry/database. The Department of Health is reviewing its role in this area. We are trying to establish whether there are strong enough needs to justify the considerable effort needed to expand and maintain a state-wide health provider data set. While we have some understanding of what the Department's needs are we would like to hear from the perspective of local health jurisdictions and other users. Some background Currently limited data are available from the licensing database the Department maintains. This includes license #, license type (Physician, Dentist, etc), name, date of birth, and a mailing address (not a practice address) as well as discipline information. Prior to December, 1998 the Department surveyed providers at the time of license renewal. This voluntary survey included information on zipcodes of practice location, type of practice, speciality of practice and hours and patient visits and generally had a 75-90% response rate. This data has not been readily accessible, though work is under way at the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies to build 1998 data set. Provider surveying ended in December of 1998 when funds at the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Department of Health were cut. The Office of Community and Rural Health also works on a case-by-case with local health jurisdictions and providers to collect provider data for Federal Health Professional Shortage Area Designations. This information is more detailed (in order to meet federal requirements), limited to primary care providers, and not comprehensive. For the Department to expand its health provider data collection efforts, the Department needs to hear that there are strong needs for expanded provider information. Expanded provider data could include: Provider specialty Practice location (s) Availability (practice hours and patient visits) Medicaid Availability Second Languages I am looking for concrete examples of how your jurisdiction would use this type of information if it was available and accessible. The following questions might help pin this down. *Are you aware of situations in which better health provider data would have been useful or necessary for help you do your job, meet your public health mission or addressing concerns raised by your constituents? *Are there existing or emerging policy issues that require this data? *Would this help in other ways for example doing outreach - incorporating a speciality code in the licensing database would allow targeted mailings to specific providers types. *Are there federal reporting requirements or performance measures that would use this (e.g. HIPAA rules)? *What data would be needed to address these concerns? *If we could only add one or two fields - what would be most useful? At this point, the Department is putting its toes in the water and not engaging in any formal process around this. So I'm just looking for informal e-mail comments to help us gauge whether there is interest/need. You can reach me at: Vince Schueler Health Care Access Analyst Office of Community and Rural Health 2725 NW Harrison Ave., Suite 500 P.O. Box 47834 Olympia, WA 98504-7834 Phone: (360) 705-6767 Fax: (360) 664-9273 e-mail: vos0303@doh.wa.gov Thanks Vince .