Abstract
To determine the frequency of similar names and hospital records of women in a public teaching maternity hospital and the risk of misidentification resulting from the similarity in spelling and pronunciation of the names and in records. Quantitative, documental and case study of 5,975 admissions that occurred between 2011 and 2014. The data name, admission and discharge date, date of birth, hospital record and bed number were collected from an electronic information system. Analysis encompassed descriptive statistics and design of an algorithm for comparison of text and sound. Examination of the names revealed that 86% of the misidentification cases resulted from identical surnames and 96.5% from a sound similarity in the first names. There were patients with identical first and last names at least one day a week. The risk of misidentification of patients is a reality, which stresses the importance of checking and pronouncing the complete names correctly.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), patient safety consists of prevention of mistakes and adverse effects associated with health care, constituting a central value of quality[1]
Patient identification is a crucial step in care that has not been given due attention by healthcare professionals, who attribute this attitude to work overload, familiarity with the patients and knowledge of the needs of each user[3]
The present study revealed that women admitted to the obstetric unit of a public maternity hospital were exposed to misidentification risk resulting from similar or identical spelling or sound of names and surnames
Summary
Patient safety is one of the fundamental principles in health care and an indispensable component to quality management worldwide.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), patient safety consists of prevention of mistakes and adverse effects associated with health care, constituting a central value of quality[1].Patient identification is one of the nine resolutions described by WHO to prevent or mitigate harm and represents a challenge to health service managers, especially regarding the involvement of patients in care and change of behavior of professionals to check identifications during assistance.In all sectors of health care, incorrect or absent patient identification keeps resulting in incidents and mistakes, compromising safety of patients and organizations, affecting mainly diagnoses, therapeutics, procedures and the trust relationship between users and service providers[2].patient identification is a crucial step in care that has not been given due attention by healthcare professionals, who attribute this attitude to work overload, familiarity with the patients and knowledge of the needs of each user[3].It is known that patient misidentification interferes negatively with health care, leading to deaths, sequelae, suffering, negligence and decrease of trust of patients and users in the health system[4]. Patient safety is one of the fundamental principles in health care and an indispensable component to quality management worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), patient safety consists of prevention of mistakes and adverse effects associated with health care, constituting a central value of quality[1]. Patient identification is one of the nine resolutions described by WHO to prevent or mitigate harm and represents a challenge to health service managers, especially regarding the involvement of patients in care and change of behavior of professionals to check identifications during assistance. In all sectors of health care, incorrect or absent patient identification keeps resulting in incidents and mistakes, compromising safety of patients and organizations, affecting mainly diagnoses, therapeutics, procedures and the trust relationship between users and service providers[2].
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