[Unique patient identification in hospitals in the National Health Service]. / Identificación inequívoca de pacientes ingresados en hospitales del Sistema Nacional de Salud.

Currently, patient misidentification in healthcare organizations is a risk that can lead to diagnostic errors, performing of surgical procedures, and administration of medicines or hemoderivates to wrong patients. The organizations that deal with patient safety promote methods that guarantee unique identifications within the strategies for improving safety in healthcare. Identification policies are obligatory to ensure the accuracy of the identification in all patients using universally implemented unique methods, and healthcare workers have the responsibility of verifying patient identification with appropriate documents when a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure is planned. In this paper we review the bases for an unmistakable unique identification and present the experiences of five regional health services that develop the policies promoted in Spain by the Quality Agency of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs.

[Elaboration and validation of an informative document on adenoamigdalectomy for patients]. / Elaboración y validación de un documento informativo sobre adeno-amigdalectomía para pacientes.

BACKGROUND: Access to up-to-date and understandable health information is a growing citizen demand, as well as an ethical duty and a legal regulation. Written information reinforces information transmitted orally during the consultation and improves recall capacity. Adenoamigdalectomy is an intervention that affects a high number of patients, the majority from the child population that has a high emotional sensitivity, and it is experienced by parents with considerable anxiety. An informative guide on adenoamigdalectomy was elaborated and validated. The aim of this article is to describe the process of elaborating the document, emphasizing its validation and results. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The document was validated in three phases: A) Clinical content validated by professionals with a checklist and a consensus meeting; B) Analysis of grammatical legibility according to the Flesch index; C) Validation of lexical legibility with citizens by means of a validation guide and interviews. RESULTS: The validation by professionals and citizens was highly positive. The professionals stressed the accuracy of the content and corrected some imprecisions. They made suggestions concerning format, writing style and length. The citizens stressed understandable language, resolution of doubts, respectful tone and their satisfaction with the initiative. They also differed on aspects such as their opinion of the document's length. CONCLUSIONS: The validation of informative documents by both professionals and patients is a process of great interest. Lack of agreement in their analyses makes it clear why it is important to include both sectors. The document was improved by their contributions.