Matching identifiers in electronic health records: Implications for duplicate records and patient safety

Increasing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and renewed emphasis on health information exchange (HIE) are leading to growing quantities of electronically available patient data that have the potential to reduce errors in a variety of ways, including improved clinical decision support. [1,2] However, health information technology (HIT) may also be associated with new errors. [3] One scenario that may lead to HIT-related errors is duplicate patient records. Three scenarios exist in relation to duplicate patient records: a correct registration exists when a single individual has a single medical record, a duplicate record exists when a single individual has more than one medical record, and a commingled record exists when a single medical record contains information about two or more individuals (figure 1).