If TPD had to make the decision on a National Patient Identifier it would be date of birth, first three letters of your last name or any three alpha's, and the last four of your S.S. Number. If TPD was born on February 1st this year TPD's NPI would be 020115TPD1234! With the increased amount of hacking we are seeing, nobody wants their S.S. # as an NPI!
To be successful an identifier must not only be an accurate and unique tag for a medical record, it must also provide full support for patient privacy requirements (like the example of a sexual assault victim mentioned in a previous comment). Additionally, it must support anonymous operations when required.
We need to address the current problem of patient misidentification which leads to far too many deaths each year. I suspect the wait for government to act on this will take a while. There is a private enterprise solution available today that is looking for partner companies.
AlmostAdjusted - 10 years ago
A NPI would be very useful, especially for those who need to move to another state for a career change. It would be even more interesting to assign a different number to non-residents who seek healthcare.
R.U.D.I. - 10 years ago
Why not use already existing unique identifier (SSN)? Why must there be a new one assigned?
Judy Jetson - 10 years ago
We have a national financial/tax/labor number (SSN).
Why not a national patient number?
Oh, it would make things easier.
sc - 10 years ago
I voted yes for a nation patient ID number as the benefits are great but the number can only be used for health care. Employers cannot ask for it and the individual owns the data associated with their national patient ID number. As such, their data cannot be mined without their consent and they can grant access to all or parts of their information. For example, a sexual assault victim does not have to grant every provider assess to know or use the information about her/his sexual assault.
nonsequitur - 10 years ago
Recent scenarios in a dynamic health care system would have benefitted significantly from an NPI:
- resolving duplicate patient records prior to launching Epic
- identifying patient record relationships in an HIE setting
- attempting to work with the VA for electronic SS disability claims review; providers might have the records the VA requested but struggle to meet the VA matching criteria.
If TPD had to make the decision on a National Patient Identifier it would be date of birth, first three letters of your last name or any three alpha's, and the last four of your S.S. Number. If TPD was born on February 1st this year TPD's NPI would be 020115TPD1234! With the increased amount of hacking we are seeing, nobody wants their S.S. # as an NPI!
To be successful an identifier must not only be an accurate and unique tag for a medical record, it must also provide full support for patient privacy requirements (like the example of a sexual assault victim mentioned in a previous comment). Additionally, it must support anonymous operations when required.
We need to address the current problem of patient misidentification which leads to far too many deaths each year. I suspect the wait for government to act on this will take a while. There is a private enterprise solution available today that is looking for partner companies.
A NPI would be very useful, especially for those who need to move to another state for a career change. It would be even more interesting to assign a different number to non-residents who seek healthcare.
Why not use already existing unique identifier (SSN)? Why must there be a new one assigned?
We have a national financial/tax/labor number (SSN).
Why not a national patient number?
Oh, it would make things easier.
I voted yes for a nation patient ID number as the benefits are great but the number can only be used for health care. Employers cannot ask for it and the individual owns the data associated with their national patient ID number. As such, their data cannot be mined without their consent and they can grant access to all or parts of their information. For example, a sexual assault victim does not have to grant every provider assess to know or use the information about her/his sexual assault.
Recent scenarios in a dynamic health care system would have benefitted significantly from an NPI:
- resolving duplicate patient records prior to launching Epic
- identifying patient record relationships in an HIE setting
- attempting to work with the VA for electronic SS disability claims review; providers might have the records the VA requested but struggle to meet the VA matching criteria.
I really like the idea of an opt-in NPI.