The Universal health identifier (UHID) is a system of identification of people. It is used for positive identification of patients when clinical care is rendered, with automated linkage of computer based records on the same patient, for creation of lifelong electronic health files, with a mechanism for protection of privileged clinical information. It is a fourteen character code consisting of four character alphanumeric component and a maximum of leading zeroes suppressed ten character numeric component.

HCID

  (Health Care Institution Identifier)     

The Health care institution identifier (HCID) is a primary key component of the AP Health Institutions Data base (APHIDB) maintained by IHS. It is a seven character code with a two character alphanumeric component and a five character numeric component, assigned to each health care provider in the data base. It is a system for identification of all the health care providers like the hospitals, dispensaries, diagnostic facilities and nursing homes for the positive identification of health care facilities for planning of health care services, disaster management and information exchange.