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Joint Commission International Centre for Patient Safety
The website provides resources and information about patient safety for the public and health care professionals. The Joint Commission’s Patient Safety Practices page provides links to trusted patient safety websites for addressing patient safety problems and are relevant to patient identification processes.Patient Identification and Performance of Correct Procedure at Correct Body Site are two of the nine inaugural Patient Safety Solutions launched by the International Steering Committee of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Patient Safety Solutions in 2007.
Patient Safety Link is the Joint Commission International Centre for Patient Safety’s free online newsletter. The theme of the April 2006 edition was technology. "Technology in Patient Safety: Using Identification Bands to Reduce Patient Identification Errors" discusses the different types of ID bands, such as those that use colour coding, bar coding, and radiofrequency, and offers strategies for safely using ID bands in all health care.
National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)
The Patient Safety Division of the NPSA is responsible for developing and producing a range of important information to improve patient safety in all care settings. There is a specific program of work on safer Patient Identification and matching patients correctly with samples, specimens, records and treatment.Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
The AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet) is an on-line resource featuring the latest news and essential resources on patient safety. The site provides patient safety literature, case-studies, news, tools, and annotated links to important research and other information on patient safety including patient identification. AHRQ relevant links of patient identification.National Centre for Patient Safety (NCPS)
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) established the NCPS in 1999 to develop and nurture a culture of safety throughout the Veterans Health Administration (USA).The Ensuring Correct Surgery and Invasive Procedure VHA Directive provides specific information on steps to be taken to ensure that the indicated surgical or invasive procedure is performed on the correct patient, at the correct site, and if applicable with the correct implant. The July 2003 issue of their newsletter TIPS provides an article on the NCPS Patient Misidentification Study (PDF 516KB).
