Patient ID Now Releases National Strategic Framework

This week, Patient ID Now, a group of more than 40 healthcare organisations, released a proposal aimed at developing a national Patient identification plan that ensures individual safety and security. The coalition’s framework calls for the federal government to work together with the private sector and other public health agencies to achieve the objective of reliable patient recognition.

Hal Wolf, president and CEO of Healthcare IT News parent company HIMSS, in a statement, “Throughout the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to address the issue of Patient identification. The inability to accurately match with their records has seve safety and financial implications, and impedes health information exchange.”

Wolf added, “The framework lays the foundation for a national strategy that saves lives, while protecting a choice and privacy rights.”There is no clear and reliable way to connect Patient to their health records, posing protection, security, and financial risks. During the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, this has become an especially thorny problem. Hospitals and health facilities have recorded duplicate records and administrative data errors, which can cost thousands of dollars to fix.

In January 2021, the Patient ID Now workgroup was created with the aim of closing the gap. The American College of Surgeons, the American Health Information Management Association, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Intermountain Healthcare, and Premier Healthcare Alliance are among the coalition’s members.Accurate identification and match rates, safety, protection, standardisation, portability and interoperability, data quality, alignment with current frameworks, equality and inclusion, and sustainability and governance are all addressed in the structure.