[Christmas Article. String-mounted nameplates increase the risk of misidentification of doctors]

At Aarhus University Hospital, it has been decided, that nameplates should be attached to strings. Previously, they were mounted on needles. This has caused problems of misidentification of doctors among patients and especially for the senior physicians, because the string-mounted nameplates often face in the wrong direction. We investigated, whether string-mounted nameplates were as good as needle-mounted nameplates at correctly showing the name of the physician, and whether the string-mounted nameplates more often faced in the wrong direction.

Throughout one working week we observed 30 physicians and their choice of nameplates at the Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Aarhus University Hospital. We had 114 complete observations.

The needle-mounted nameplates always faced in the right direction (33 of 33 observations). More than half the string-mounted nameplates faced in the right direction (45 of 80: 56%), but this proportion was only 45% among the most junior physicians, who consequently were at the greatest risk of misidentification.

The design of nameplates is important for correct identification of physicians. Our study showed, that the decision to replace the needle-mounted nameplates with string-mounted ones had resulted in a 44% risk of misidentification of physicians. This represents an increase from 0%. Our most junior colleagues were at the greatest risk, 55%.

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not relevant.