Dates of Project: April 2011 to April 2012

Field of Work: Testing the feasibility of a voluntary universal health care identifier

Problem Synopsis: Efforts to use health information technology to improve health outcomes, reduce duplication of effort, and reduce health care costs have been hampered by the challenge of accurately establishing a patient's identity across multiple information systems. One potential solution is to use a unique, voluntary universal health care identifier (in the form of an identification card) linked directly to all of the patient's health records.

Synopsis of the Work: The research team trained staff at one health care provider organization to issue voluntary universal healthcare identifier numbers to patients, and then tracked adoption and use of the identifier. They also assessed the perceptions of clinic staff who registered patients for the card, as well as the perceptions of the patients themselves.

Key Findings:

• This pilot demonstrated that the identifier was technically and operationally feasible.
• Staff at the clinic issued the identifier cards to 250 patients. Some 239 of them asked to be enrolled as a result of "word of mouth from other patients," indicating to researchers that the patients found the cards to be helpful and talked about their benefits with their friends.
• A provider survey indicated that clinic staff was very supportive of the project and had an above-average understanding of the project.
• Based on results from the patient survey, the research team believes that patients viewed the identifier system favorably.