Same here for most of my dentists. They KNOW me, all too well. :eek: And even some WalMart pharmacy clerks merely glance at me and start searching for my meds. New pharmacists, and my medical network, want 1) name and 2) DOB. The medics may want 3) phone number too, but it’s a big network so I’m not surprised at duplicate identities.
I grew up across the street from my childhood dentist’s home. No hiding, no escape! My mother the hospital nurse took me to doctors she worked with. No hiding, no escape! Which is scarier: having to ID yourself for medical-dental-pharma stuff, or NOT having to?
My social life for the last few years has mostly been in medical offices. That gets old.
At the doctors and dentists offices I’ve dealt with here (Chicago) they typically do date of birth first, then name for confirmation. I literally just dealt with this twice in the past week, and both times, date of birth was asked first at two different offices. It’s pretty much become standard. It hasn’t always been the case, but in at least the last half decade to decade, it’s what I expect. It’s nice not having to spell my last name every time I go into the office.
I often communicate medical info to Dr’s offices. They usually ask for birthdate for the lookup/ confirmation.
I myself prefer medical record number.
I can’t tell you how many times people have given me patient names, often with spelling, and I run a search only to come up goose eggs. When things finally get figured out, the name has been misspelled or simply misremembered.
When I go to see the doctor at the HMO, I give my name and the doctor I’m to see, they then ask for my DOB. I don’t know what they’d do if I just asked to see the doctor and didn’t give my name. When being called in from the waiting room, I’m called by first name.
I recall once sitting in a waiting room with a colleague, not next to him just in the same waiting room. They came out and called for Charles. No one responded. I happened to be next to the nurse calling and I told her if you mean Charles ____, he goes by ‘Chick’. So first names can I guess get confusing.
I don’t really know what they do at the dentist. She and the receptionist both know me well by sight so I just say “I’m here.”
When I go to see my GP, there is a touch screen in the reception area, where, once activated, I can choose my DOB (no need to type - three screens give day, month and year). The next screen shows names; usually just mine, but rarely, there is another one to choose from. The next screen shows the name of the doctor or other professional, with whom I have an appointment, what time it is and a message about any delays. I can sit and read an ancient magazine, or watch the kiddies playing with the toys until my name comes up on a screen and a disembodied voice calls me in, using both first and last names.
In ye olden days, I had to go to reception and queue with all the people wanting prescriptions, appointments, or just having a moan about something. Even prescriptions are automated; they get sent directly to the local pharmacy.
Name Search: Smith, Chris
Result:
Smith, Chris
Smith, Christian
Smith, Christine
Smith, Christopher
“Is that short for something?”
“Yes, for Kristin. With a K”
vs.
Date Search: 04/04/1984
Result:
Jones, Jessica
Smith, Kristin
White, Peter
Personally, I’d much rather be trying the match the name in the date search than match the date in the name search.
I have the same systems here in London (except my GP practice doesn’t read out my name, just beeps. I once had to stand guard outside the loo for a lady, to tell her when her message came up and which room to go to). And when I pick up my prescriptions at the pharmacy and give my name, their double-check is the first line of my address.
Non-zero. When I was in HS one of the teachers told of the time they had two students with the exact same first middle and last names and born on the same day. It was a headache and they ordered them by the name of the street they lived on. Incidentally, they were also first cousins. What were their fathers thinking?
Phone number? That seems rather odd…and a bit unworkable. I have five phone numbers that I might use (work, mobile, home landline, and two VOIP numbers that basically just go to VM). It’s hard enough trying to figure out which phone number will get me to my shopper loyalty program. (“No? OK, try THIS one…”)
Generally speaking, name and birthdate is enough to narrow it down to one person- you may have a lot of John Smiths in your patient database, but probably very few, or none with the same birthday. It’s not perfect, but it’s usually close enough.
Actually, distinguishing unique patients is something of a challenge in healthcare IT, if you don’t have something like a SSN to conclusively identify someone.
I have a name that is both frequently misspelled and often mangled in form, so looking me up can be difficult figuring out what variation they have. Therefore I get internally giddy when they ask DOB first, we don’t have to spend a bunch of time figuring it out.
At my last clinic visit, the nurse asked to take a picture of me to add to my chart. “For fraud prevention?” I asked. “That’s what we’re telling people” she said brightly. It made me chuckle. I declined.
^^^This. Match birthdate with name. You can blame us “computer engineers” for this. You will get a thousand different answers. Your privacy matters, though not as much as you thought, at least here in good old USA.
