In 2007, as part of an annual performance improvement
review, Leisa Butler, RHIA, CPHQ, performance
manager in the quality management services department
at Self Regional Healthcare (SRH) in Greenwood,
SC, began tracking safety events occurring within the
facility with an identification (ID) events team consisting
of staff members from the operating room (OR), emergency
care center (ECC), laboratory, and risk management
department.

From this performance improvement review, Butler
and her team discovered that patient ID events comprised
the majority of safety events occurring at SRH. In
targeting patient ID processes, SRH managed to reduce
ID events by 65% after one month of implementing a
new plan. These ID events included misidentification
of a patient, specimen, medication, test results, and/or
medical record.