Patient misidentification is nothing new—it has been around since the start of healthcare itself. In the past, patient misidentification was present in the form of mix-ups. After the introduction of EHRs, patient misidentification occurs in various ways like duplicate medical records, medical identity theft, medical fraud, and so on. Patient misidentification has become more prominent than ever as well since there are various studies done regarding patient matching errors. Patient misidentification is causing millions in losses for healthcare providers as well as generating denied claims. A single patient matching error costs from $1000 – 4000 to identify and fix, depending on the severity of the issue. Patient misidentification is aptly called the multibillion-dollar problem of the healthcare industry. Not only that, but patients have to face numerous problems, including long waiting times, incorrect treatments, surgeries, and in extreme cases, deaths, as well as financial problems when they get wrong medical bills due to services they did not use.

Thanks to the numerous studies done regarding patient misidentification, a lot of concrete data has come to light due to which healthcare providers and patients alike are now more aware of how dangerous and common patient misidentification is and how it is affecting everyone in the healthcare industry adversely. Such studies are sorely needed by the healthcare industry to show just how overlooked and how dangerous a problem patient misidentification is. The source of this infographic is a study of a similar type, conducted in association with hundreds of healthcare employees and experts who know about patient misidentification and its problems far better than the rest of us. Find out some of the insightful information which the study reveals regarding patient misidentification, how common it is within the healthcare industry, and where and how it usually happens with the help of this infographic.