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Because if a caregiver doesn’t accurately identify the patient, then everything will go wrong right from the start. As the patients will be associated with wrong medical records, it will lead to several issues such as delayed care, repeated lab tests, detrimental patient outcomes, wrong procedures, and more - let’s explore.

Consequences of patient identification errors

Imagine this - if a patient is misidentified right during registration, they are associated with either a wrong medical record or a duplicate one. This can lead to, as previously mentioned, a lot of issues. Repeated lab tests, wrong medical procedures, or wrong medications are just some of the consequences, and these lead to medical errors - even a wrong medication can prove fatal! As a result, detrimental patient outcomes, patient safety issues, and sometimes, even deaths occur because of patient misidentification. This is why it’s so important to validate a patient’s identity at a hospital.

How do hospitals identify their patients?

Patient misidentification has been a significant but overlooked issue within the US healthcare system for years. As a result, since the beginning, different healthcare providers have used different methods or solutions to validate patients’ identities due to the absence of a national patient identifier. However, the most feasible, safe, and effective solution is RightPatient.

RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification platform that is used by several forward-thinking caregivers for several reasons. First of all, it doesn’t pose infection control issues as it’s a touchless solution - making it ideal for the pandemic. Secondly, it uses the characteristic that cannot be stolen, lost, or transferred - patients’ faces. Thirdly, it has years of experience, making it credible and reliable. Finally, it is versatile enough to be used across any touchpoint within the hospital. 

RightPatient locks the electronic health records with patients’ photos so that it isn’t assigned to anyone else. Patients are sent an SMS or email where they are required to provide their selfies and a photo of their driver’s license. This allows the platform to compare the photos for a match - remotely authenticating patients’ identities.