NICU patients are usually admitted as "Baby Boy/Girl Mother’s Surname." If parents do not have the same surname, they may request to change the baby’s name of record to the father’s surname. It is the policy of the NICU and Medical Records that inpatient names should not be changed. Changing names can cause confusion in the Blood Bank, Laboratory, and Pharmacy which could jeopardize patient safety.

In Accounting, for billing purposes, names are changed to correspond to the patient’s legal name recognized by their insurance company. Formerly, this change only occurred after discharge. Recently, cross-talk between computer systems has resulted in a premature changing of names of inpatients. VMG and Accounting are aware of the seriousness of this problem and are investigating solutions. If a name change is noted on an inpatient, the NICU should call the Manager On Call in Admitting and report the problem immediately.

Discussed at Nursery Policy & Procedure Meeting 7/18/01.