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Identification of Special Patterns of Numerical Typographic Errors Increases the Likelihood of Finding a Misplaced Patient File

Affiliations of the authors: Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan (Y-CS, D-DT); Decision Systems Group, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachuetts (Y-CS, QZ, RG).

Abstract

When a typographic error of a patient identification number occurs on a patient document such as an envelope for radiology films or the cover of a patient record, it will result in misplacement of the document. Once misplaced, such documents are often extremely difficult to recover. After analyzing 290 numerical typos, we found that errors do not occur randomly. Instead, many of the typos share certain specific patterns. Six major types of non-random numeral typographic error patterns have been identified and their frequency characterized. Knowing these patterns and their odds increases the likelihood of finding a misplaced file. In addition, awareness of these patterns during transcribing or writing a patient ID may decrease the chance of typographic errors.