Author: Kanak Rajendra Surjuse

What is patient demographic?

Patient demographic is the information given by the patient to the hospital. This includes patient-related information for example Name, Age, Gender, Weight, Height, Address, Occupation, Contact information, Social history (allergies, smoking, alcohol, etc.), Past medication history, Past medical history, family history.

Format of Patient demographic process –

Name –  It includes legal name, First name, last name, middle name, Suffix, Previous name.

Age –

Date Birth – It should be the complete format Date/Month/Year (xxxx) or Mouth/Date/Year(xxxx)

Race –

Ethnicity – It includes the information regarding the geographical regions.

Gender – It includes Female (F), Male (M)

Preferred Language – Preferable mother tongue, example English or regional language

Current Address –  Includes street name, house number, city/town, state and country.

Phone Number – patient personal phone number and family member contact (one or two) in case of emergency so that the hospital will contact them.

Social history – It includes whether the patient is alcoholic, Smoker, Tobacco chewer and any food or environmental allergies for example peanuts allergy, pollen grain allergy.

Medical History – Drug allergies, Previous surgeries, Past medication history, current medication,

Immunization history –  It should include all the information regarding immunization of individual since birth till current date. Also the places from where it is taken, date and year.

Family medical history – Along with patient history the family history is also important because some are disease and disorder which are genetic and this information will help in proper treatment to the patient.

Occupations –  It includes whether the patient was doing labor work or employee.

Education –  It mainly consist current education.

Insurance – It give information about the insurance of the patient to the hospital.

To get all demographic information regarding the patient the healthcare service provider should ask the proper question to the individuals. If the patient was able to talk or not conscious then the Healthcare service provider can ask questions to the patient family member about the patient health condition.

Why are the Patent demographics valuable?

Patient demographic assist the doctor in making decision based on each patient’s condition. Information as mention above will help the doctor in giving the best treatment protocol to the patient. The more we know about the patient history the better we can provide. It helps the healthcare provider in tracking the patient health condition and also helps to determine the improvement in his health condition.  All the patient demographic details in one place allow to make crucial treatment decisions quickly and correct.

Demographic information helps the healthcare provider to determine which certain group need attention and the most help. It also helps the building healthy relation and trust between the patient and healthcare provider. To build the trust with the patient be transparent about the how their information going to be used and how it can help in improving their health condition.

Example of patient demographic process with the help of case study

Case –  ABC is a 40-year-old African American male, who has difficulty controlling his HNT lately. He is visiting his primary care provider for a through physical examination and to renew a prescription to continue his blood pressure medication.

Patient Demographic –

Name of patient – ABC

Age – 40 year’s old

Date of birth –  xx/xx/xxxx

Gender – male

Preferable language – English

Ethnicity – African American

Address – (patient current address) street name, house number, city/town, state and country.

Phone number – (it should be as mention above)

Occupation – Air traffic controller at the local airport.

Social history – The patient is widower and lives alone. He has a 15 year’s old son lives with maternal aunt. He has not spoken with his son for four years. He had smoking habit for approximately 10 years but stopped smoking when he was diagnosed with HTN. He also had habit of drinking beer every evening to relax. He does not pay any particular attention to the sodium, fat, or carbohydrate content of the food that he eats. He admits to ‘salting almost everything he eats, sometimes even before tasting it’.  He takes walk but has no regular daily exercise program.

Allergy – Rash with penicillin use.

Family history –  Father died at age 49 from AMI, had HTN

Mather has DM and HNT

Brother died at age from complication of CF

Two younger sister are A and G

Medical history – Chronic sinus infection

Hypertension for approximately 11 years

Pneumonia 6 years ago that resolved with antibiotic therapy

One major episode of major depressive illness caused by the suicide of his wife 5 year ago.

Insurance – (It should be mention above)

Patient Demographic information should be as above process. It should be in details manner. Patient demographic details vary from patient to patient. This is because not comorbidities found in patient.

Reference –

1. Case study obtained from 100 case studies in pathophysiology by Harold J. Bruyere, Jr.

(case study number 5 – Hypertension page no. 18)

2. Image source – https://www.accesshealthcare.com/services/revenue-cycle/patient-registration-patient-demographics#:~:text=Demographic%20entry%20and%20verification&text=Legal%20name%2C%20gender%2C%20address%2C,Medicaid%20or%20Medicare%20policy
3. https://help.elationhealth.com/s/article/Patient-Demographics-Guide
4. https://mindsea.com/patient-demographics/