RHIT Data Integrity and Quality 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which activity is an example of secondary data use in healthcare?
- A physician reviewing a patient's medication list during a visit
- A researcher using de-identified records to study readmission rates (Correct answer)
- A nurse documenting vital signs in the EHR
- A coder assigning a diagnosis code to a current encounter
Correct answer: A researcher using de-identified records to study readmission rates
Secondary data use involves using data originally collected for patient care for purposes such as research, quality improvement, or public health.
Question 2: What is the key distinction between data accuracy and data precision?
- Accuracy is about format; precision is about completeness
- Accuracy reflects how close data is to the true value; precision reflects the level of detail or specificity (Correct answer)
- Accuracy applies to coded data; precision applies to free-text data
- Accuracy is a system property; precision is a user property
Correct answer: Accuracy reflects how close data is to the true value; precision reflects the level of detail or specificity
Accuracy means the data correctly represents the real-world value, while precision refers to the granularity or specificity of the data captured.
Question 3: Which method is used to assess data quality by examining a subset of records rather than all records?
- Benchmarking
- Statistical sampling (Correct answer)
- Normalization
- Data profiling
Correct answer: Statistical sampling
Statistical sampling allows analysts to draw conclusions about data quality across a large dataset by reviewing a representative subset.
Question 4: Which data quality problem occurs when the same patient has two separate Medical Record Numbers in the same facility?
- Duplicate record (Correct answer)
- Overlay
- Overlap
- Fragmented record
Correct answer: Duplicate record
A duplicate record occurs when the same patient is registered more than once, creating multiple MRNs for one individual.
Question 5: A record overlay in an EHR is most dangerous because it:
- Creates extra storage costs
- Results in one patient's health information appearing in another patient's record (Correct answer)
- Causes a billing code to be unassigned
- Delays discharge summary completion
Correct answer: Results in one patient's health information appearing in another patient's record
An overlay merges records incorrectly so that one patient's data populates another patient's chart, creating serious patient safety risks.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes a master patient index (MPI)?
- A database of ICD codes used for billing
- A registry of all patients ever treated at a facility, linking all their encounters (Correct answer)
- A list of all physicians with admitting privileges
- A directory of insurance payer contracts
Correct answer: A registry of all patients ever treated at a facility, linking all their encounters
The MPI is a facility-wide index that uniquely identifies each patient and links all encounters to the correct individual.
Question 7: Data 'currency' (also called timeliness) is most critical in which of the following situations?
- Archiving historical discharge summaries
- Alerting a physician to a critical lab value (Correct answer)
- Running an annual coding productivity report
- Generating a five-year trend analysis of DRG weights
Correct answer: Alerting a physician to a critical lab value
Timeliness is most critical when a delay in data availability could affect clinical decision-making or patient safety.
RHIT Data Integrity and Quality 4
Which activity is an example of secondary data use in healthcare?