The
Community Health Index is a register of all patients in
NHS Scotland,
Scotland's
publicly funded healthcare system. The register exists to ensure that patients can be correctly identified, and that all information pertaining to a patient's
health is available to providers of care. Patients are identified using a ten-digit number known as the
CHI Number, pronounced . This number is normally formed using the patient's date of birth (as DDMMYY), followed by four digits: two digits randomly generated, the third digit identifying
gender (odd for men, even for women) and a
check digit (Modulus-11). As of March 2010, uptake of this number (based on radiology requests) varied across Scotland from 96.5% to 99.9% depending on the local NHS Board.
Pharmacy The CHI number is included in electronic medical referencing systems, such as AMS (Acute Medicine Service), CMS (Chronic Medicine Service) and MAS (
Minor Ailment Scheme). All of these connect to Scotland's
ePharmacy which contains details of all medical patients for Scotland. ==See also==