Fascinating New Developments in Patient Identification

You go into the hospital to have a cancerous leg amputated. They put you out for the surgery and in what seems like a short time, you wake up and your leg is gone. Suddenly a doctor appears at your bed side and tells you. "I have some good news and some bad news". "The bad news is that we cut off the wrong leg". The good news though is that new tests came back and you never even had cancer in the first place"!

It Has Happened in the Past

They had you confused for someone else the whole time! Sound like a crazy joke? The truth is that things like this have actually happened and even worse! People have actually even died as the result of mistakes in patient identification.

Well Get it Right this Time

Now for the really good news. You don't have to worry about these types of mistakes happening any more, thanks to new technologies in patient identification. In fact, now it is virtually impossible get patients mixed up in a hospital.

Which Leg Did You Say it Was?

What about the wrong leg though? Suppose they have the right patient but that have his or her legs mixed up? Don't worry either, because there is surprising new technology that is now being used to make sure these types of mistakes don't happen either.

Its Time for a Tattoo!

For instance now hospitals are using non removable bar coded wrist bands to identify patients the same way that your grocer identifies merchandise at the checkout counter. Also, believe it or not, hospitals are now using temporary tattoos to help prevent mistakes during medical procedures as well.

Look into My Eyes

There are still other areas being explored for more advanced methods of patient identification. Biometrics for instance, is one new promising area that would identify patients instantly by their fingerprint or even the patterns in their eyes. Who knows what the future holds in patient identification!

Written by Francisco Javia. Now you can learn all you wanted to know about Patient identification as well as provider contact information