Patient labels as a quality indicator of identitovigilance in French hospitals

Identity risk is frequent and serious. Between 2007 and 2010, 25.6% of 1572 serious adverse events declared in France are related to identitovigilance. No regulation clearly defines an ideal patient label even when a delivery refusal is applied in case of absent or incomplete identity (absence of surname and/or first name and/or birth date). The aim of the study was to draw up the current situation of patient labels in hospitals connected with our blood transfusion center and being used for blood products delivery and immuno-hematology analyses.

We defined an ideal label with 5 items which must be present and clearly identified: surname, usual or marital name, first name, birth date and sex. It contains also an identifier, if possible with a bar code. We compare it with labels used in our hospitals.

Only 22% (17/76) had a patient label in compliance with our ideal label. Most of the items, even if they were not clearly identified on the label, were present. The surname was present and clearly indicated in 75% of cases (57/76). In approximately 50% of cases, there was a barcoded permanent and/or stay identifier.

Our results, with only 22% of labels considered as 'ideal', show all the work which remains to be done. A temporary solution can be the elaboration by hospitals of an identification guide of their present labels.