Recommended safety actions to avoid inaccurate patient identification include:
- Utilizing an active confirmation process to help match patients with documentation
- Using a standardized process for patient identification and capturing patient information regardless of where registration happens
- Ensuring information for accurate patient identification is clearly displayed on electronic displays, wristbands and printouts
- Implementing monitoring systems to detect identification errors, such as checking for duplicate patient records
- Including high-specificity alerts to ensure accurate identification, such as warning users when they try to create a record for a new patient whose first and last names are the same as another patient
The advisory is available on the Joint Commission website.
More articles on clinical leadership and infection control:
Florida hospital mistakenly let wrong mother breastfeed newborn, patient says
Merck launches safer childbirth initiative to curb maternal deaths
New Jersey hospitals’ vaccinations down, C-sections up despite value-based incentives
