A NEW system for identifying individual patients across all levels of the health and social care system, both public and private, should be introduced as soon as possible, according to a new report.
The report from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) published yesterday states that being able to identify an individual through a unique patient identification number is essential for patient safety.
“The absence of a unique health identifier (UHI) for individuals is the single most important deficiency in the health information infrastructure in Ireland,” the report says.
The report also states that if the new system was put in place, it would cut down on administrative costs, on costs associated with adverse events, and also on costs associated with duplicate testing.
Prof Jane Grimson, director of health information with Hiqa, explained that at the moment in Ireland there is no reliable method of tracking a patient through the healthcare system and a UHI would address this. “Currently, healthcare services rely on matching names, addresses and date of birth, none of which are reliable or recorded in a standard format,” Prof Grimson said. “This poses a substantial risk to the safe delivery of services. Our primary concern is patient safety, and this is one area where immediate action is needed.”
She added that it was clear from recent reports that tragedies such as those in Monageer could have been averted if only the health and social care services had a clearer sense of the contacts between the family and State services and if there had been a better, safer use of information about such patients.
“This is just one example of how a UHI can improve safety,” she said.
The report estimates that it would cost some €16 million to issue a unique health identity card to each person in the State and another €17-€30 million to set up a central trusted authority to operate the new health identifier system. However, it says these costs would be more than recouped within a few years.
“Research suggests that the system will pay for itself within the first years of implementation and continue to accrue savings in the years that follow owing to a reduction in adverse events and making the best use of information by applying the principle ‘collect once, use many times’.”
Extrapolating from a 2008 US study, it suggests the system would save €58.5 million a year here by avoiding adverse drug events, which are often the result of incomplete linking of information about a patient’s medications or allergies. It could save another €44 million by avoiding duplicate testing and imagining.
On the type of unique identifier that should be introduced, it says use of PPS numbers should be avoided as they would be unsafe and could lead to increased costs in the long run. Instead it recommends a new UHI system underpinned by legislation.
It says there is already public support for such a system as results of a poll conducted on behalf of Hiqa showed 96 per cent of people thought the same identifying number should be used across all healthcare settings.