By Melissa Talley, BSN, MBA, Director of Quality Clinical Services

Data quality is one of the most intractable problems that affects all users of healthcare information. Providers need confidence in data from third-party systems to make clinical decisions. Patients need to know their data will move smoothly and accurately across systems. And Payers need to trust that data is complete and true for analytics and operations.

As one of the first Designated QHINs under TEFCA, KONZA National Network is unifying health information networks by facilitating the seamless exchange of comprehensive medical information on a national scale. And the most critical element of nationwide interoperability is data reliability.

KONZA has built a robust data quality program, including hiring an oversight team and developing an internal Quality Committee committed to create processes, procedures and technical controls to establish data quality and completeness standards. 

The team has guided KONZA to become one of the first Health Information Exchanges to be certified in the NCQA Data Aggregator Validation (DAV) program in 2021. Now, KONZA has one of the largest and most trusted Certified Data Streams, currently maintaining over 400 accredited organizations and validating three times as many cases as the average participant in the program.

KONZA undergoes continuous audits by NCQA to maintain its Validated Data Stream Certification. Currently, we’re taking our eighth cohort through the DAV program, and we’re looking to celebrate the new sites that earn DAV accreditation within the several weeks.