Accuracy in Patient Identification

CLSI invites nominations for participants to develop consensus guidelines on Accuracy in Patient Identification.

This project is scheduled to start in July 2007, and will address criteria for an effective, accurate patient identification system in various healthcare settings; system validation and monitoring are also included.

Scope and draft introduction section for the proposed consensus document:

All healthcare processes depend upon accurate patient identification (PI). The identifying system must be reliable, reproducible, and rigorous. An error in patient identification can have fatal consequences.

The intended users of this guideline are healthcare workers who are involved in the design, selection, implemention, monitoring, and evaluation of patient identification systems.

This guideline will describe the essential elements of any system for patient identification. It is adaptable for both inpatient and outpatient settings. The principles in this document may be applied anywhere in the world. The fundamental concepts are the same whether applied to a manual system or to an electronic system.

This document will provide the criteria for selecting a patient identification system appropriate for a particular healthcare venue. The design and implementation of a comprehensive program is addressed. Finally, this guideline will help a provider to validate a patient identification program and to monitor it for effectiveness.

Exclusions: It will not address mechanisms for capturing and transmitting PI electronically, but that should be the subject of a companion document. This guideline is intended to support any digital PI process.

Chapter headings/topics

Abstract
Committee membership
Foreword (including relationship to path of workflow and to quality systems)

Scope
Introduction (including importance of accuracy in patient identification)
Definitions
Overview of options
Designing a patient identification system

Criteria for accuracy
Inpatient/outpatient considerations
Language and cultural considerations
Standardizing the content to enable usability for every department in the organization

Implementing a system to ensure comprehensiveness

6.1    Primary system
6.2    Acceptable alternatives

Training considerations
Measuring the accuracy of the system

Validation of a new or modified system
Reports of misidentification incidents
Auditing the system

Active membership

Interest categories for committee membership

• expected user of the consensus document in a patient care environment
• expected producer or distributor of products or services related to the consensus document
• general interest, including regulatory or accreditation applications

SPECIFIC EXPERTISE/WORK EXPERIENCE NEEDED ON THE SUBCOMMITTEE

• Manufacturer of patient identification systems, both electronic and manual
• Medical records expert
• User(s) with experience in inpatient and outpatient settings (nursing, anesthesiology, hospital pharmacist, etc.

New Subcommittee Structure

The Board of Directors has approved the trial implementation of a new committee structure to be used in the development of this project.  The new structure is intended to increase opportunities for participation by interested parties as voting members of the subcommittee.

Open nominations will be invited for subcommittee membership within balance constraints; interests will balanced among

* Users

* Producers

* General interest –including accrediting bodies and regulators

Committee Nominations and Appointments

Committee balance will be established by appointment to specific interest categories on an ongoing, sequential (in order of receipt of nomination) basis to ensure that no interest category has a majority.  Each appointed member will have voting rights; all others will be appointed as interim or registered observers.

Interim observers are individuals nominated as members “on hold” for appointment pending resolution of balance considerations.

Registered observers are individuals from organizations already having a voting interest* on the subcommittee or not desiring voting privileges.

(*One vote per voting interest; a voting interest is defined as one or more persons from the same operating unit of an organization.)

Writing Group

A small two- to four-member working group, expanded as needed to include the subcommittee chairholder and at least one representative from each interest category, will prepare the initial draft document and revise the draft consensus document as needed at meetings and/or via conference calls. 

Voting Privileges

All members of the writing group and subcommittee members are eligible to vote.  Observers are not eligible to vote.

Process

The writing group will engage the full subcommittee to review and vote on preliminary drafts via e-mail, conference calls, webcasts, or meetings in conjunction with conventions.  A structured process will be followed to resolve a comment or negative vote.  Note that it is required that comments must include an explanation and a proposed resolution in order to be acted on.  The explanation and proposed resolution will be considered by the full subcommittee for adoption or rejection. Only those sections of a document that receive reject votes or that are changed in response to comments need to be re-balloted.

A draft document will be completed by the writing group with open communication and iterative review and vote by the subcommittee.

To join the subcommittee, please complete the attached nomination form, briefly describe your interest in the topic, and return the form to CLSI before 1 July 2007.

NOTE:
CLSI will not provide reimbursement for activities related to this project.  All subcommittee participants are expected to be reimbursed by their member organizations.

2007 Pilot Project
Accuracy in Patient Identification (GPxx) [ return to top ]