Developing updated and new guidance to promote reliable patient identification

To describe the process of updating the Patient Identification Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) Guide and to review new practices and refinements to the Guide.

We conducted a review of literature on the topic of patient identification in healthcare settings, focusing on papers published after 2016. Titles and abstracts were screened by a team of reviewers, and the full text of retained articles was used to inform the revision.

The updated SAFER Guide strengthens recommendations for displaying patient photographs and using electronic patient identification, including barcoding and radiofrequency identification on patient wristbands. The Guide also recommends the use of biometric identification at registration and point of care. Finally, the updated Guide removes a recommendation to restrict the number of concurrently open patient records permitted in the electronic health record.

The revised SAFER Guide includes new recommendations aimed at supporting accurate patient identification at registration, order placement, and the point of care.

The updated Patient Identification SAFER Guide provides evidence-based national recommendations to help reduce patient misidentification.