Quality in practice: implementation of hospital guidelines for patient identification in Malawi.

Quality Problem Or Issue: Patient identification in a teaching hospital in Malawi. Initial assessment 34% of hospital staff recalled a misidentification event in the preceding year; less than 10% of staff described the use of unique patient identifiers other than name when taking blood samples and 98% of laboratory requests included no identifiers other than name.

Choice Of Solution: Hospital identification guidelines based on WHO guidelines to introduce identification wristbands; encourage routine use of an identifier in addition to name on laboratory requests and improve bedside identification procedures.