Patient safety: patient identification wristband errors.

摘要

Correct patient identification is the cornerstone of patient safety in any healthcare setting. Misidentification of patients can occur in any location where healthcare is provided, such as hospital wards and outpatient clinics, laboratory and imaging departments and in primary healthcare clinics. The consequences of patient misidentification can result in inappropriate management including investigations, diagnosis and treatment, with fatal consequences, for example, in a hae-molytic transfusion reaction (1, 2).