Best Practices for Patient Safety

Best Practices for Patient Safety
The best practices for patient safety revolve around more effective patient identification procedures.
This does not only ensure that quality care is given but protects patients from a wide range of potential
mishaps and avoids health systems from significant financial losses.
The consequences of improper patient identification have, in the past, resulted in everything from giving
incorrect medications or dosages, performing unnecessary surgeries, and even fatalities.
To prevent this from happening you should implement the following best practices for patient safety
regarding proper identification at your healthcare facility.
Three Or More Identification Factors
Most hospitals currently utilize two identity verification factors. These are most often a person’s full
name and date of birth. This is not enough, however, for two reasons. First, this information could easily
be stolen as it is readily shared information. Second, there is a possibility (however slim) that two people
could have the same or very similar names who were born on the same date.
Instead, choose to use three or more identification factors when verify who a patient is. You don’t want
to use more than five, however, because then it could potentially hamper patient care. Suggestions on
ID factors to incorporate into your healthcare routine include:
Home or mailing address
Phone number
Last four digits of a person’s social security number
Age (in combination with birthdate, to ensure accuracy)
Maiden or former name (if applicable)
Require Verbal Statements
Whenever possible your healthcare institution should require patients to verbally state their ID factors
instead of answering “yes” or “no.” This ensures they are not simply complying with the information
given but actively verifying who they are.
Sometimes this is not possible, such as in the case of an unconscious patient or an emergency in which
the person is unable to respond for themselves. In this event you should either ask the next of kin or
power of attorney on record for the patient (if known) or follow the hospitals guidelines for these
situations if no information is known about the patient (with “John Does” or “Jane Does”).
Active Patient Identification Policies
Patients should, whenever possible, be active in identifying themselves in ways which cannot be falsified
easily. This includes presenting a state identification upon registration for adults. The parent or legal
guardian of a child should be responsible for providing an ID when someone under the age of eighteen is
admitted.

Also have patients read their wristbands upon receiving them. This checks that no errors have been
made during the registration process in terms of identifying information. Alternatively, patients could be
asked to read the information on the registrar’s screen prior to wristbands being printed.
Photographic Evidence
One way to help further prevent medical identification fraud is to have hospitals take photographs of
patients during the registration process. This is already being implemented in other fields, such as
banking and check cashing facilities.
It takes just a second to snap a photograph. This can be quickly compared to a patient upon each new
visit to ensure that nobody is trying to pretend they are someone they are not.