Fail-safe patient ID matching remains just out of reach

Modern Healthcare: Two women with the same name went in for mammograms on the same day at the same hospital. One of the tests came back with a worrisome finding; the other looked fine.

Unfortunately, the women wouldn't know their true conditions for nearly a year because the results were sent to the wrong primary-care physicians. For the woman who was told about a potential cancer diagnosis, the results led to unnecessary testing. For the other woman, who thought she was in the clear, the results led to something much worse: time for what might have been cancer to grow.

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