The importance of Positive Patient Identification (PPI) in reducing medical errors is a harsh reality when considering that 195,000 deaths in the United States each year are attributed to preventable hospital errors (HealthGrades, 2004). The leading cause of death due to medical errors is caused by patient, specimen and/or medication misidentification, which results in billions of dollars in national costs per year.¹

Implementing PDC RFID Solutions will help ensure that the "Five Rights of Medication Safety" are achieved: Right Patient, Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Route, and Right Time. They also comply with the standards and regulations of top healthcare regulatory groups for tamperproof, non-transferable, positive patient ID. These include:

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which calls for uniform standards of data exchange and the protection and confidentiality of patient information.
• The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for positive patient identification.
• The American Hospital Association (AHA) guidelines, calling for a tamperproof non-transferable wristband that minimizes the risk of lost or transferred data.

View the web pages in this section to learn more about PDC RFID technology, its critical role in healthcare, and PDC’s market-leading RFID products.

For additional RFID information or product samples, please call PDC Customer Care at +32 67 89 56 38. Or inquire online at Contact PDC.

1. Institute of Medicine . To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington D.C. : National Academy Press; 1999.