[Benchmarking in patient identification: An opportunity to learn]

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Effective patient identification is crucial for safe healthcare delivery.
• The "Club de las tres C" (Calidez, Calidad y Cuidados) initiative aims to enhance patient care through warmth, quality, and attention.
• Benchmarking offers a method to compare and improve processes across institutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To benchmark the safe identification of hospital patients within the "Club de las tres C" framework.
• To develop a standardized, common procedure for patient identification based on best practices.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of current patient identification processes in participating hospitals.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive study was conducted across five medium-stay hospitals.
• Data on patient identification processes were collected from palliative care and stroke units.
• Data were organized, analyzed, and used to formulate a common procedure.

Main Results:

• Safe patient identification rates were high across all participating hospitals.
• Hospital 3 achieved 100% accuracy in stroke patient identification.
• Palliative care identification rates ranged from 85.2% to 98.3%.

Conclusions:

• The benchmarking study successfully identified best practices for patient identification.
• A useful common procedure incorporating these best practices was developed.
• All participating hospitals demonstrated good performance in safe patient identification, with opportunities for further improvement identified.