Healthcare information management leaders headed to Capitol Hill on July 22 to ask Congress to end the ban on the use of federal funds to create a nationwide unique patient identifier.
The American Health Information Management Association and College of Healthcare Information Management Executives argue that a patient identifier solution would reduce the number of medical errors and protect patient privacy.
Currently, healthcare providers rely on patients' names and dates of birth to identify their medical records. This, however, is not always unique to one individual, causing errors when imputing information into a patient's EHR.
"Now more than ever we need a nationwide unique patient identifier to ensure that patients are correctly identified in our increasingly digital healthcare ecosystem," said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell. "This is a top priority for our members. We applaud the House for taking a leadership role on this issue by removing the ban and we strongly encourage the Senate to do the same."