[Not Available].

Objective: To know the current situation on the implementation of the patient identification systems in hospital centres in Catalonia.

Methods: Interviews carried out with nurse managers of Catalonian hospitals on patient identification systems, implementation in the different hospital services and data used in the system.

Results: Of the 75 centres studied, 90.7% used some kind of patient identification system. Only 26.7% of the interviewed centers had patient identification systems in all its hospital services. The most used identity data were patient name and surname (100%), clinical history number (79.4%), birth date (67.6%) and bed number (66.2%). 77.3% of the centres used only one patient identification system, and the most used was the wristband (85.3%). A wristband identification protocol was used in only 67.2% of the centres and 50% of all the centres had some problem with its use.

Conclusions: There is good level of implementation of patient identification systems in Catalonia, nevertheless greater use of these systems and their standardisation needs to be promoted in all hospital services, as well as continuously monitoring compliance.