Part Six: Unique Patient Identifier Options and Alternatives

There are Six (6) options for the Unique Patient Identifier, Three (3) for Non Unique Patient Identifiers and Five (5) as Alternatives to the Unique Patient Identifier.

Unique Patient Identifier Options

The following six (6) are the Unique Patient Identifier options:

1. Enhanced Social Security Number proposed by the Computer-based Patient Record Institute (CPRI).
2. ASTM Sample UHID proposed by Dr. Barry Hieb
3. Patient Identification Number based on bank card methods
4. Model UPI based on Personal Immutable Properties
5. Lifetime Human Service and Treatment Record (LHSTR) Number based on the Birth Certificate
6. Biometric Identification.

Non Unique Patient Identifier Options

The following three (3) are Non Unique Patient Identifiers options:

1) Medical Record Number

2) Medical Record Number with a Provider Prefix

3) Cryptography-based Healthcare Identifier

Alternatives to Unique Patient Identifier

The following five (5) are the Alternatives to Unique Patient Identifiers:

1. Manual Process
2. CORBAMed Person Identification Service
3. HL7 MPI Mediation
4. FHOP's Standard Data Set as Common Patient Identifier
5. Directory Service.

The description of each of these fourteen (14) options, their proponents/authors and Documentation are described in detail in the next section (Part Seven: Analysis of Unique Patient Identifier Options). The analysis itself utilizes a common report template.