Need To Track COVID-19 Vaccinations Shines New Light On Issue Of Patient Matching
- September 28, 2020
Modern Healthcare (9/26, Cohen, Subscription Publication) reported, “COVID-19 and the hope for a solution – a vaccine – have shined a light on yet another long-standing problem in healthcare that is likely to get worse: patient identification.” The coronavirus crisis, “responsible for more than 200,000 deaths in the U.S., has brought renewed focus on patient matching, a subtle but still crucial patient safety and operational challenge hospitals have been grappling with for decades.” Without a way to “accurately identify patient immunization records across care settings, providers won’t be able to track who has received a COVID vaccine – a priority for returning to a so-called new normal.”