Picture this ... putting a face to positive patient identification.
Article Type: Brief article
Subject: Hemodialysis facilities (Quality management)
Hemodialysis (Methods)
Hemodialysis (Quality management)
Identification cards (Usage)
Authors: Sanchez, Saverina
Weeres, Annette
Pub Date: 07/01/2008
Publication: Name: CANNT Journal Publisher: Canadian Association of Nephrology Nurses & Technologists Audience: Trade Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Health care industry Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2008 Canadian Association of Nephrology Nurses & Technologists ISSN: 1498-5136
Issue: Date: July-Sept, 2008 Source Volume: 18 Source Issue: 3
Topic: Event Code: 353 Product quality
Product: Product Code: 8089010 Dialysis Clinics NAICS Code: 621492 Kidney Dialysis Centers SIC Code: 8092 Kidney dialysis centers
Geographic: Geographic Scope: Canada Geographic Code: 1CANA Canada
Accession Number: 187615992
Full Text: Patient safety is the ultimate goal in the delivery of quality health care. In a dialysis unit with a large culturally diverse population where language barriers and similar names contributed to the incidence of error, it was imperative that we addressed the issue of positive patient identification. With incidents of mislabelled blood specimens increasing, this practice needed to be addressed in a manner that promoted positive patient outcomes.

Change is imperative, but how and what evidence supports a possible change (Carroll, 2005) and what changes are sustainable within the work environment? The most common solution to this issue would simply be to use patient armband identification for each dialysis visit. However, the recurrent registration process resulted in delayed patient treatment and a significant financial impact for the dialysis unit. Current literature supports that patient photo identification is one method to reduce the incidence of errors in health care settings.

This presentation will describe the process for developing patient photo identification for dialysis patients and the impact on misidentified blood specimen errors. In addition, in the chronic setting of the dialysis unit, this new and innovative project resulted in positive patient outcomes, as their involvement in the process resulted in feeling ownership, pride and autonomy.

Photo identification has helped the dialysis unit deal with high volumes of patient registration, as well as the issue of misidentification. Photo identification is just one more step in ensuring all the data are correct and that a picture ... put a face to positive identification.

Saverina Sanchez, RN, MScN(c), CNeph(C), and Annette Weeres, RN, BScN, MN(s)
Gale Copyright: Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.