Reference table
Patient identifiers
A reference table of the identifiers held for a patient, including the hospital number and external identifiers, and how each is used.
The platform holds a small set of identifiers for each patient. The Pensieve patient number ties the record together across every hospital, and external identifiers link it to systems beyond the hospital. This page lists each identifier and how it is used.
The identifiers held
Each identifier answers a different question about a patient. The Pensieve patient number finds the record. The visit number pins one contact. External identifiers reach outward to national and payer systems.
| Identifier | Scope | How it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Pensieve patient number | One per patient, platform-wide, and unique across every hospital. | The key the record is found and opened by. It spans every site that runs Pensieve rather than only the sites of one organisation. |
| Visit number | One per encounter. | Ties diagnoses, orders and charges to a single contact. A patient holds one visit number for each visit. |
| Temporary emergency identifier | One per unidentified arrival. | Stands in when a patient reaches the emergency department without identity. Staff reconcile it to the patient number once the patient is known. |
| National health identifier | One per patient, held nationally. | Links the record to national health-data exchange under ABDM in India. |
| Payer membership number | One per payer relationship. | Identifies the patient to an insurer or a scheme, and travels with billing and claims. |
One patient, one record number
A patient carries a single Pensieve patient number. If a search turns up two records for one person, staff merge them, so one number carries the whole history. Atlas holds the record and issues the number.
The Pensieve patient number
The Pensieve patient number is minted from a single platform-wide sequence and is unique across every hospital, so care at any site that runs Pensieve draws on the same record. The record has no owning organisation. A patient treated at a main hospital and a satellite clinic keeps one number across both. A hospital's own number, by contrast, is held per site as its medical record number. The section on the record across sites follows how one record holds across the hospitals that run Pensieve.
External identifiers
External identifiers link a patient to a system beyond the hospital. A national health identifier connects the record to national health-data exchange under ABDM in India. A payer membership number identifies the patient to an insurer or a government scheme, and rides along with billing and claims. Both are held on the record and read where the hospital meets an outside system.
Common questions
Is the patient number the same as the visit number?
They answer different questions. The Pensieve patient number holds across every visit for one patient. The visit number pins a single contact and carries the diagnoses, orders and charges for that contact.
What holds a patient who arrives unidentified?
A temporary emergency identifier stands in at emergency intake. Staff reconcile it to the patient number once the patient is identified, so the emergency contact joins the rest of the history.
Read registering a patient to see where the patient number is issued.