The Universal Patient Identifier: a discussion and proposal

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Medical Record Management
• Biometrics

Background:

• The necessity for a standardized, reliable patient identification system in healthcare is widely recognized.
• Current identification methods, such as the Social Security Number (SSN), present significant advantages but also considerable drawbacks for patient identification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the need for a standard, robust patient identifier.
• To evaluate the pros and cons of using the Social Security Number (SSN) as a patient identifier.
• To propose and describe an alternative patient identification number.

Main Methods:

• A review of the requirements for a standard patient identifier.
• Analysis of the Social Security Number (SSN) for its suitability and limitations in patient identification.
• Development of a proposed alternative identifier combining birthdate, geographic location, and check digits.
• Extension of the proposed schema for provider and facility identification.
• Description of base 34 representation variations for the composite number.

Main Results:

• The Social Security Number (SSN) has limitations for patient identification.
• A proposed composite number, incorporating birthdate, location, and check digits, offers a robust alternative.
• The base 34 representation ensures the composite number is short, easily derived, decoded, and resilient.

Conclusions:

• A novel, robust patient identification system is proposed, overcoming SSN limitations.
• The proposed identifier, based on demographic and geographic data with check digits, is suitable for various healthcare identification needs.
• The base 34 encoding provides an efficient and practical representation for the proposed identifier.