National Patient Identifier

Each of the requirements described in this document must be considered in the design of a national healthcare identification system.  We maintain that these requirements must be addressed regardless of what implementation strategy is chosen for the final deployment of a unique healthcare identifier.  For that reason, the analysis of each issue attempts to focus on the requirements to solve that issue rather than the solution that is incorporated into any particular solution.  Additional information concerning the specific GPII solution is provided by the references.

Dr. Barry Hieb is an expert in the field of patient identification.  His work in this area spans several decades.  He is passionate about find a solution to the problem of patient misidentification that is acceptable to all involved in healthcare delivery and that empowers patients to manage their healthcare appropriately.  This paper summarizes requirements for such a solution.