Care and notice of unidentified patients

Atención y notificación de un paciente NN

Introduction: unidentified N.N “Nomen nescio” patients pose a challenge for healthcare providers. To determine their identity, find their family and inform about the situation may be as complicated as diagnosing their illness. Even from the psychosocial perspective the lack of identity may lead to additional problems for the provision of healthcare services. Clinical case: a 36 year-old male trauma patient who was hit by a car as a pedestrian arrives to the emergency room of Hospital de San José in Bogotá; at the time of admission, his Glasgow coma scale score is 11 and has no belongings that might reveal his identity. He undergoes a surgical procedure in which he requires vasopressor and respiratory support as his lesion was classified as an emergency. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and was declared an unidentified male patient, thus the protocol to uncover his identity must be applied. Discussion: Colombia has a protocol regarding provision of healthcare services to patients admitted to a hospital as unidentified N.N “Nomen nescio” patients. Knowing about this protocol is important among healthcare providers, especially among the medical staff; for their work must go beyond the management and prevention of the bio-clinical affection, focusing in notifying the corresponding entities and articulating with other disciplines to establish patient´s identity, for there may probably be someone inquiring for a missing relative who might be the unidentified patient who is under our care.

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