Using Biometrics to Address a Patient Misidentification Crisis

This panel discussion will address the challenges of patient misidentification and the growth of duplicate records in healthcare, which compromise patient safety and inflate costs. Panelists will explore factors that have contributed to the patient misidentification crisis, including mergers and acquisition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the use of non-unique identifiers like names and birthdates, especially in large populations. Additionally, interoperability issues between healthcare systems and the inaccuracies in manual data entry are also a factor. Healthcare leaders from US hospitals will discuss their strategies to combat patient misidentification. Panelists will explain their approaches to patient identification – including the use of manual data like names and dates of birth for identification, as well as the use of biometric technologies like facial recognition and palm-vein scanning, and the pros and cons of different methods. They will explore challenges in creating unique patient identifiers and navigating privacy, compliance, and interoperability, and discuss the legislative implications of the Match IT Act, aimed at standardizing patient identification. The session will provide insights into best practices for improving patient identification accuracy, streamlining registration, and minimizing errors and their fallout.