The comment "Unique patient ID has to happen" intrigued me, because that's patently untrue.
Consider:
- We already have a national ID: Social Security Number. However, that doesn't account for recent immigrants or tourists.
- It's possible that every single person living on planet Earth may visit the United States at some point and while visiting may need health care.
- You'd need to be able to account for >7,000,000,000 people (and counting).
- Tourists may visit the USA multiple times and years apart, and they can't be expected to remember an MRN.
- A national ID does no good if the potential exists for one patient to have multiple IDs. Within a single hospital, Patient Merge gets used all the time. If you've ever had to deal with Patient Merge AND Care Everywhere, then you know the problems that arise when a hospital can't match the person to the chart. Multiply that by the entire nation. Or the entire planet.
- Biometrics are unique and they can't be forgotten because they don't have to be remembered in the first place.
- A national (international?) database of biometric information with bi-directional interfaces to every hospital system will need to be created and maintained.
- Remember Obamacare?
That seems a good place to stop. Discuss.
