美发现重症监护室中的患儿常常会被误认

 
根据一项研究结果，患儿相似的姓名和医疗档案数量的增加，常常导致新生儿重症监护室(NICUs)婴儿误认的可能大大增加。

这项研究发表在2006年1月的《儿科学》，研究人员研究了Beth Israse Deaconess医学中心(Boston, MA, USA)1年内1,260例新生儿共计12,186天患者护理记录。每例被调查的儿童平均在监护室中度过9天～10天的时间。1例患者日被认为面临误认的危险，当这个指标患者与当天NICU另外一个患者的姓氏相同、姓氏发音相似、或者医疗档案号(MRN)相似。后续的MRNs分配结果在许多医院意味着在相对较短的时间内进入NICU的患者具有相似的MRNs，而这会由于多次生育而产生的难题。

研究结果发现，没有一天不存在患者身份误认的危险。最常见的原因是相似的MRNs (44%患者日)。同样的姓氏在34%的患者日中存在，发音相似在9.7% 患者日中存在。双胞胎和三胞胎在NICU中在三分之一的患者日中存在。

Infants Often Mis-identified in Intensive Care
 
Similarities in patients’ names and medical record numbers lead to a high potential for infant mis-identification in neonatal intensive care units NICUs), according to a recent study.

In the study, published in the January 2006 edition of Pediatrics, researchers studied 12,186 days of patient care for 1,260 newborns at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA, USA) during one calendar year. Each surveyed child spent an average of nine to 10 days in intensive care. A patient day was considered at risk for mis-identification when the index patient shared a surname, similar-sounding surname, or similar medical record number (MRN) with another patient cared for in the NICU on that day. The sequential nature by which MRNs are assigned in many hospitals means that patients who are admitted to the NICU within a relatively short time frame are at highest risk for sharing similar MRNs, a problem exacerbated by multiple births.

The results found that not a single day was free of risk for patient mis-identification. The most common cause of mis-identification risk was similar-appearing MRNs (44% of patient days). Identical surnames were present in 34% of patient days, and similar-sounding names were present in 9.7% of days. Twins and triplets contributed one third of patient days in the NICU.