Patient Identification Policy Resources

Patient identification and patient matching are critical to ensuring the right care is provided to the right patient across the continuum of care. Identity errors may result in patient harm and can be costly to healthcare systems due to lost revenue, decreased provider productivity, and resource expense associated with remediation of errors. Accurate patient identification also promotes interoperability by increasing the likelihood that individual patients will match with the correct health information across different organizations and disparate systems.

According to Oklahoma SB 1337 for Managed Medicaid and SB1369 for Oklahoma Health Information Exchange, all health care providers are required to be connected to the state-designated health information exchange (HIE) by July 2023. While there is currently no required standard for capturing and managing patient identifiers in health information systems, resources have been published by AHIMA and ONC that may be used to inform policies and establish an industry standard. Please find these resources and a sample Patient Identification Policy linked below.

AHIMA Patient Naming Policy. Recommended Data Elements for Capture in the Master Patient Index (MPI). 2021. American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

Project US@ Technical Specification for Patient Addresses. 2022. The Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

ONC-AHIMA Companion Guide to the Technical Specification for Patient Addresses. 2022. American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and The Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).