On May 16th 2000, the Honourable Roger Grimes, Minister of Health and Community Services and Andrew Grant, Chair of the Board of Management of NLCHI jointly announced in a news conference that NLCHI would begin the work to create the Unique Personal Identifier/Client Registry project.

The UPI/Client Registry is a six-phase project, with the first three phases already completed by NLCHI and SmartHealth. NLCHI will issue a Request for Proposal based upon the UPI/Client Registry Project Scope submitted to the Department of Health and Community Services in February 2000.

The development of a Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) and a Client Registry is the cornerstone of the HIN. The Client Registry is an information system that will hold accurate demographic information about all people using health services in the province. The total cost of this opportunity will be approximately $3 million.

It will include name, address, date of birth and MCP eligibility status. The Client Registry will hold information about all people. To do this, each person will be given a Unique Personal Identifier number when he or she first accesses the health system, whether it is at birth or on a one-time visit by a tourist to the Province.

The MCP number will act as the Unique Personal Identifier for all people eligible for coverage under MCP. However, the Client Registry will create a "shadow number" for each person regardless of MCP eligibility. This "shadow number" will be used for communication among the various information systems used in the health sector, particularly the Meditech system in hospitals and Client and Referral Management System in Health and Community Services offices.

The Registry will draw upon data in the existing MCP database, some of the health boards' databases, and contact with residents to create the registry of valid demographic information about each resident of the province. The UPI/Client Registry itself will not link any personal health information about individuals held by the regional health boards and others. It will facilitate the linking and exchange of information in the future components of the Health Information Network, which will be built in stages over the next seven to ten years.

A Registry Integrity Unit is needed to achieve and maintain an accurate UPI/Client Registry. It will consist of a dedicated staff assigned to identify residents with potentially inaccurate demographics as well as inappropriate eligibility coverage with the Medical Care Plan (MCP).

The proposed workflow for the new Registry will be acceptable to stakeholders and realistically lead to the achievement of the benefits that were identified in the Benefits Driven Business Case. Furthermore, the UPI/Client Registry will provide a solid foundation for further phases of work as the NLCHI Health Information Network moves forward.

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