The patient identification process is essential to ensure safety and quality of assistance in healthcare institutions. The use of a wristband for identification is common practice, although cultural, organization, material and human factors cause non-conformity resulting in errors or adverse events. The aim of this article is to highlight constituent elements of the patient identification process by means of wristbands and discuss topics related to the implementation of this process in hospitals. This study was based on theoretic references and standardizations of accrediting organizations and bodies that debate security in the hospital environment and incentives for safe patient identification. It was concluded that patient identification by means of wristbands is recommended internationally although there are loopholes in relation to protocol, effective execution and evaluation of the process to support management and healthcare actions.Descriptors: Quality healthcare. Patient safety. Healthcare evaluation. Nursing. RESUMO O processo de identificação do paciente é essencial para garantir a segurança e a qualidade da assistência nas instituições de saúde. O emprego de pulseira para identificação é uma prática usual. Contudo, fatores culturais, organizacionais, materiais e humanos concorrem para sua não conformidade, induzindo a erros ou acarretando eventos adversos. Este artigo teve como objetivos destacar os elementos constituintes do processo de identificação do paciente por meio de pulseiras e refletir acerca da implementação desse processo nas instituições hospitalares. Adotaram-se referenciais teóricos e normatizações de organiza

Objective: To determine the frequency of similar names and hospital records of women in a public teaching maternity hospital and the risk of misidentification resulting from the similarity in spelling and pronunciation of the names and in records. Method: Quantitative, documental and case study of 5,975 admissions that occurred between 2011 and 2014. The data name, admission and discharge date, date of birth, hospital record and bed number were collected from an electronic information system. Analysis encompassed descriptive statistics and design of an algorithm for comparison of text and sound. Results: Examination of the names revealed that 86% of the misidentification cases resulted from identical surnames and 96.5% from a sound similarity in the first names. There were patients with identical first and last names at least one day a week. Conclusion: The risk of misidentification of patients is a reality, which stresses the importance of checking and pronouncing the complete names correctly.

No abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate scientific articles published between 1991-1995, in order to identify the compliance in antihypertensive therapy, One hundred seven scientific articles were evaluated. The results showed that 68% were related to patient, 63% to pharmacological treatment, 62% general, 39% non pharmacological treatment, 34% organizational factors, and 8% related to disease. Compliance with antihypertensive therapy was the major challenge of hypertension management and to know how this aspect was focalized in scientific articles possible reduce non compliance in hypertension.