Patient Identity Management Case Study

Introduction
Patient Identity Management, privacy, and language access policies are responsible for accurate identification of patients, proper administration of medicines, and aid in the scientific analysis of patient information (Hosek & Straus, 2013). In recent past, healthcare providers have neglected these policies causing a myriad of issues and fraud in the healthcare sector. The scenario below analyses the possible outcomes as a result of negligence, errors arising due to the PMI infrastructure, misconduct of medical staff, and communication issues.
Background information
This section reviews the errors and outcomes as a result of neglecting patient identity management and language access policies. Studies undertaken have exposed malpractices
and unprecedented errors as a result, thus hindering the delivery of services. Audit results revealed several data errors associated with hospital encounters of patients who speak English as a second language. The study was based on all the elements of clinical encounters for patients, commencing at the point of the establishment of a chief complaint by the patient; to the discussion of a management plan for the patient.
Scenario
Mrs.
Purity and James (from South America) are over 70 years of age and are currently staying with their grandchild (Hillary) in the US. Hillary’s parents have travelled abroad for work for a period not less than one week. On the second evening after school, Hillary joins his friends in the neighborhood to play. He is accidentally knocked down and his grandparents rush him to the nearest urgent care facility. At the hospital, Hillary can barely express his miseries and the grandparents only have a basic understanding of the English language. Hillary complains about pain in Spanish while he cannot specify where the exact pain is. The registration process comes to a halt as grandparents cannot provide the child’s social security number. Needless to say, the hospital lacks an individual who can offer translation services. To save the child’s troubles, the hospital carries out a quick check of the child’s name to match it with his location. After a few searches and while the child is being attended to, it emerges that within Hillary’s location, there are over 10 children of Spanish origin with matching names. Meantime, the grandparents cannot communicate effectively with the hospital clinicians (Just Associates,
2016).
Presentation of findings
It is likely that in the event of patient communication with the doctor, information shared is either vague or very specific.
For instance, a foreign patient who may not speak the local language may present a complaint such as, “I’ve been feeling pain in my right elbow” or “my right arm hurts.” While the hospital may lack an interpreter, this could be a major cause of misdiagnosis hence result in the poor provision of care. To avoid the occurrence of such errors, the clinician should use open-ended questions to fully question and interpret complaints from the patient.
Lack of language interpreters in healthcare facilities that are frequented by foreign-language speaking patients can cause serious problems. In accordance with the Laws regarding language access in health care settings, it is a federal requirement that hospitals utilize the services of qualified interpreters. Modern urgent care facilities should have personnel able to communicate effectively within the range of available languages in the location (Sabriya ,
2014).
The MPI infrastructure does not deliver well-filtered search results that could aid in the correct identification of the patient. While patients should ideally have a single Master Person Index (MPI), some have multiple record numbers and others even share creating problems with identifying, tracking, and cross-reference patients in their records. Errors associated with MPI often lead to treatment decisions made unknowingly based on inaccurate patient information (Peabody, 2009). Maintaining MPI Integrity, Injecting Human Intervention, and Eliminating Duplicates are among the few steps taken to address common MPI errors.
Failure to provide proper health care treatment is attributed to misconduct of medical staff. As observed in our case study, there is a likelihood of misdiagnosis and/or delayed diagnosis. Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis is a common malpractice and accounts for the majority of complaints in medical staff misconduct. When a clinician misdiagnoses a patient condition or the diagnosis is delayed, the patient misses treatment opportunities that could prevent severe damage or even cause death. Medical staff needs to adhere to the health laws code of conducts and show commitment to excellence in providing quality patient care (Michon, 2016).
Conclusion
Patient Identity Management remains a widely unsolved area for managing patients in various healthcare facilities. Additionally, privacy and language access policies are vital in ensuring proper treatment and care is administered to all patients. Through open-ended questions and fully understanding of patient complaints, diagnosis errors could be eliminated. While the complexity of modern hospital’s records infrastructure continues to expand, it is vital for hospitals to evaluate the functionalities of their MPI infrastructure, hence be able to properly identify patients for proper administration and diagnosis of their problems to make it easier to provide for them the best care. Medical staff personnel are expected to adhere to the set code of conduct to make the delivery of healthcare a success story.