Lichtner, V, Wilson, S and Galliers, JR (2008) The challenging nature of patient identifiers: an ethnographic study of patient identification at a London walk-in centre. Health Informatics Journal, 14 (2). 141 - 150 . ISSN 1460-4582
Abstract
The correct identification of a patient's health record is the foundation of any safe patient record system. There is no building of a ;patient history', no sharing or integration of a patient's data without the retrieval and matching of existing records. Yet there can often be errors in this process and these may remain invisible until a safety incident occurs. This article presents the findings of an ethnographic study of patient identification at a walk-in centre in the UK. We offer a view of patient identifiers as used in practice and show how seemingly simple data, such as a person's name or date of birth, are more complex than they may at first appear and how they potentially pose problems for the use of integrated health records. We further report and discuss a dichotomy between the identifiers needed to access health records and the identifiers used by practitioners in their everyday work.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2008, SAGE Publications. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Health Informatics Journal. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Ambulatory Care Facilities, Humans, London, Medical Record Linkage, Patient Identification Systems, Walk-in centre, Patient identification, Identifiers, Health records, Ethnographic study |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Nursing (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Jun 2013 10:05 |
Last Modified: | 17 Jan 2018 03:16 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1081180X08089321 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1081180X08089321 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:75666 |