Reconciliation anonymisation is the removal of patient and staff IDs from a medicines reconciliation sheet. NICE guideline NG5 on medicines optimisation expects reconciliation within 24 hours of admission in acute settings, so these sheets are produced fast and carry identifiers throughout. anonym.plus runs locally and keeps the home and inpatient columns that drive the comparison.
When this applies
A reconciliation sheet names the patient and the reconciling pharmacist and sets the home list beside the inpatient one. Where a discrepancy caused harm, the learning belongs in a safety review — the names do not.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the sheet in anonym.plus on your device.
- It finds patient and staff names plus NHS number.
- Dates and contacts get flagged across the entry.
- Confirm the flags; the medicines stay as non-IDs.
- Swap them so the comparison view still reads clearly.
- Save the clean copy; the source stays on your machine.
What you need to provide
- The sheet (DOCX, PDF, or EPR export).
- An operator (Replace keeps the comparison readable).
- Optional staff map for safety-event review.
Patient data entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Names | PERSON | patient header → [PATIENT] |
| Names | PERSON | reconciler → [STAFF] |
| Record IDs | MEDICAL_RECORD_NUMBER | MRN → [MRN] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | admit 14 Mar → [DATE] |
| Location | LOCATION | Bed 12 → [BED] |
| Contact | PHONE_NUMBER | GP tel → [PHONE] |
Compliance achieved
- NICE guideline NG5 on medicines optimisation expects reconciliation within 24 hours of admission in acute settings — the sheet it produces is dense with identifiers from the start.
- Meets DPA 2018 and the NHS Code of Confidentiality for any use beyond the patient’s own care.
- Safety learning is shared on a minimum-necessary basis under Caldicott principle 3, in line with NHS England’s Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.
- The reconciling pharmacist’s initials are staff personal data under DPA 2018 s.3(2) and are cleared with the patient’s details.
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Limitations & cautions
These sheets set two columns side by side, so check that both are scanned. The medicines stay and are not treated as identifiers. Staff initials in the sign-off line are easy to miss yet name a person, so confirm that column too. A discrepancy that led to a serious incident may still be traceable within a single ward.
Frequently asked questions
Will the before-and-after view survive?
Yes. The home and inpatient columns stay. Only the IDs around them change, so the comparison is still useful for safety teaching.
Are the medicines treated as identifiers?
No. Drug names are clinical content, not personal data in themselves, so they stay in both columns.
Should the reconciling pharmacist be named in a safety review?
Usually not. Patient safety learning under the PSIRF is about the system, and staff names are personal data under DPA 2018, so most teams blind them for the shared copy.