Dimensions of IIS Data Quality

This month we're focusing on representativeness and what this means in terms of IIS data.

What is representativeness?

Representativeness refers to how well IIS data reflects a population of interest. For example, we want the total number of patients in our IIS to closely match state census estimates so that IIS data is representative of the state’s population. 

At the clinic level, representativeness means that the patients who are associated with (“owned by”) a clinic in the IIS closely match the clinic’s current patient population.

What can organizations/clinics do to improve the representativeness of IIS data?

• Report duplicate IIS records using the instructions in this guide. Reducing the number of duplicate records in the system means the total number of records in the IIS will more closely match the state’s actual population.  
• Organizations who are set up to own patients in the IIS can use the Manage Population tool to see which patients their organization/clinic “owns” and compare to their actual patient panel. See the Managing Patient Ownership and Status Guide for more information.  

What have we done to improve representativeness?

• Birth and death data are uploaded into the IIS on a weekly basis. This helps ensure children born in WA State have a record in the system and that individuals are identified as deceased in the IIS when death data is received.   
• Identify and resolve duplicate records and bad merges in the system so IIS data is more reflective of the state’s population.  
• Compare IIS data to census data and identify ways to improve the accuracy of patient totals in the IIS.