Ways to Protect Patient Identity

Patient identity is essential to health care. Whether you are in a doctor's office or a hospital, your patient's identity is important for confidentiality. Not only does sensitive information and patient conditions deserve confidentiality, but patients also should be protected from potential identity theft when their information is in your care.

Require Identification

• Identification should be required before a patient is given access to medical records, allowed to be seen for an appointment or prior to accessing a patient's health insurance. Identification should be verified with the patient's physical insurance card as well as a driver's license or other form of identification.

Respect Confidentiality

• A patient's confidentiality should be respected in all cases. That means that when discussing a patient a physician, nurse or other medical staff members should ensure that no one is around to hear sensitive patient information who is not privy to it. A patient's case should never be discussed with another party without the direct consent of the patient first. When speaking to a patient, use a room that provides privacy so that other individuals around cannot hear what is said.

Patient Documents

• Any documents pertaining to a patient should be respected with the utmost security. That means not leaving patient documents, consent forms, identification cards or charts left open on desks or in the open where an unauthorized person can view or remove them.

Training Employees

• Employees who handle patient information in billing offices and patient care should be thoroughly trained in patient security. Teach employees how to secure patient documents, verify identities and the essential information that should always be protected for the patient such as date of birth, driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers, addresses and health conditions.

Secured Transmissions

• In the event a patient's file or information regarding a patient's identity needs to be sent to an outside source, it needs to be secured. This means using a messenger service where documents are sealed in an envelope labeled "confidential." For transmitting documents electronically security measures must be in place. Emailed documents should be sent using a secure file transmission or STP, and faxed documents should be sent to a number that is verified and sent to a secure fax machine.