Patient IDs would improve healthcare.

• Position: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - Patient identification number

Creating a unique patient identification number for every person in the United States would help reduce medical errors, simplify the use of electronic medical records, increase overall efficiency, and protect patient privacy, according to a recent RAND Corp. study.

Creating such an ID system could cost as much as $11 billion, but the effort would likely return even more in benefits to the nation's healthcare system, said researchers from RAND Health, a nonprofit research organization.

As adoption of health IT expands nationally and more patient records are computerized, there have been increasing calls to create a system that would make it easier to retrieve records across varying systems such as those used by doctors and hospitals. Federal legislation passed more than a decade ago supported the creation of a unique patient identifier system, but privacy and security concerns have stalled efforts to implement it.

RAND researchers examined the costs of creating a unique patient ID system, compared the error rates of such a system and its alternatives, and examined the operational advantages and disadvantages.

The study concluded that one of the primary benefits created by broad adoption of unique patient identifiers would be to eliminate record errors and reduce repetitive and unnecessary care.

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Instead of unique patient identifiers, most health systems currently use a technique known as...