JC & 2 unique identifiers

[Mabel Adams]

What do you consider your "2 unique identifiers"? I don't consider names or DOBs unique because multiple people have the same ones, but maybe others do. JC pushes these 2 identifiers for everything but BB. Med Rec #s, account or visit numbers and secondary banding system numbers are unique but hard to have available for oncology office blood draws etc.

So, what are your identifiers and how do you handle exceptions like OP transfusion specimens drawn off-site?

[Cliff]

We use the name and MRN for patients. When the register they must also provide their SSN and DOB.

For our donors we require name, DOB and SSN.

[DANDERS]

We use the DOB & V# except in BBK where we use the MR#. Our oncologist's office is the only area outside the hospital allowed to draw crossmatch specimens. They have a list of their patient's MR#s, but call us when they don't have one. If the patient doesn't have a MR# yet, we have them use the DOB.

[kslaforce]

We use the name and medical record number as well as the Typenex band number. For outpatients, the physician office (mostly oncology) is required to call our patient placement/admissions office to get a medical record number. If the patient is not in the system, admitting will register them over the phone to get a medical record number.

[David Saikin]

We use birthdate and mr# and will be adding the BloodLoc code "soon". Names may change, esp after marriage or divorce.

[tbostock]

Name and DOB are our hospital's official "two identifiers". But for Blood Bank tubes, we require name, DOB, MR# and Blood Bank ID band number. So, a little "overboard" with 4 identifiers, which increases our mislabeled rate, but this is what it has come to...

[L106]

Our requirements are the same as Terri stated above.

[LAS]

In-patients: name and medical record number with DOB considered if MR number is not available.

Out-patients: name and DOB.

Blood bank specimens only: the Typenex number is considered a unique (additional) identifier for that specimen.

No blood bank specimens are drawn by non-hospital personnel. If off-site collection is required (nursing home) a lab phlebotomist does it using DOB as the identifier. The Typenex armband is completed using the DOB as the second identifier. The patients are transferred here to a specific care area for transfusion and those nurses are comfortable using the DOB on the BB armband since hospital policy states that it may be used as such.

[kmh76]

We are Joint Commission accrediated and use patient name and Medical Record number for inpatients and Name and date of birth for outpatients and it has been fine with joint Commission. If the computer system is dwn and we can't get a Medical Record number on an inpatient we use Social Security Number.

[Eagle Eye]

name & medical record number for inpatient...name and DOB for outpatient(used to use SS# before)

[swede]

We use name and MR#, our outpatients have the same MR number as their inpatient MR number.

[adiescast]

Nursing insisted on name and date of birth. As soon as they made that change, we started requiring second samples for ABO retype AND an independent bb band. Obviously none of this is fool proof ("Nothing is fool proof for the clever fool."), but it helped me to sleep at night. It is too easy to have someone with the same or extremely similar name to have the same date of birth.

[bbbirder]

We provide Typenex bands and collection tubes (and a copy of our procedure and personalized instructions) to our Oncologist's offices so they can collect specimens for future transfusion in our Outpatient Chemo room.

We in BB had them using the name and SSN. Our outpatient chemo/transfusion nurse requested that they add the DOB to this, so they did. We get good cooperation from them (sometimes better than our own staff!)

Linda Frederick