Patient Identification

The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goal #1 requires using at least two patient identifiers before every clinical interaction: medication administration, blood product transfusion, specimen collection, treatments, and procedures. Acceptable identifiers include the patient's full name, date of birth, and assigned medical record number. Room number is NEVER an acceptable identifier because patients move beds, and rooms get reassigned. Both identifiers must be verified actively — the nurse asks the patient to state their name and date of birth rather than asking "Are you Mr. Smith?" (a yes/no question a confused patient might affirm). The identification band is checked against the medication administration record, lab requisition, or blood product label at the point of care, not at the nurses' station. For patients who cannot self-identify (unconscious, nonverbal, infants), the nurse verifies the armband against a second source such as a family member or the medical record. During blood transfusions, two qualified individuals (typically two licensed nurses per facility policy) independently verify the patient's identity and blood product compatibility at the bedside — this dual-verification step is the highest-stakes application of patient identification.