Patient standardization identification as a healthcare issue

Abstract

Healthcare organizations use information systems with several different types of data and user interfaces. The lack of standardization means loss of efficiency and effectiveness. It limits the expected quality of Healthcare services. Some difficulties for this standardization are known. However there are models that can respond to the complexity of this area of science and evolve with the development of knowledge. A problem which is common to several organizations is the lack of automatic identification of patients. Another one is how to solve the problem of having information duplicated in different databases. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of the standardization of clinical data and the development of unique models of identification that will enable setting unique access keys and the interconnection between all the clinical data. The empowerment of systems that support clinical decision and the use of workflows for treatment plans that involve more than an organization of Healthcare will only be possible if they use standard models, open technologies and unique patient identification. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.