Patient misidentification costs the average health care facility $17.4 million per year, compromising patient safety and outcomes. The Patient ID Now coalition, of which the ACC is a part, has released a framework intended to inform the federal government in the creation of a national strategy to support and improve patient identity efforts and help to reverse these trends.

The Framework for a National Strategy on Patient Identity: A Proposed Blueprint to Improve Patient Identification and Matching urges collaboration among state, local, tribal and territorial public health authorities – as well as the private sector – to protect patient safety and privacy and reduce health care costs in the U.S. The document includes specific building blocks the Department of Health and Human Services can include as part of a national strategy to ensure accurate patient identification and shares recommendations and expertise in the areas of accurate identification and match rates, privacy, security, standardization, interoperability, data quality, and health equity and inclusion.

The ACC fully supports efforts to fix the patient identification problem. Learn more about the Patient ID Now Coalition here. ACC members can take action and support these efforts by contacting their lawmakers to urge repeal of Section 510 from the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to allow for a national strategy around patient identification.

Clinical Topics: Cardiovascular Care Team

Keywords: Privacy, Patient Safety, Private Sector, Public Health, Federal Government, Health Care Costs, Group Processes, Health Facilities, United States Dept. of Health and Human Services, ACC Advocacy

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