Healthcare organizations are faced with the arduous task of improving the patient identification process, according to HealthData Management.
Here are five considerations:
1. Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations proposed a bill that emphasized the role of correctly identifying patients in both patient safety and health information exchange.
2. The healthcare industry is also focused on "digital identity," with companies developing a flurry of "smart cards, magnetic stripe cards, bar-coded cards and biometrics" as solutions to this complicated issue, according to HealthData Management.
3. Reliable patient demographic data should be able to pinpoint duplicates, overlays and overlaps. Unfortunately, a digital identity solution can't promise a mistake-free reading.
4. Information systems are also constantly transforming with implementation, replacement and merger and acquisition.
5. The patient demographic data must be "consistently cleansed and maintained" daily to offer an ultimate solution, according to HealthData Management.