What question should a technician ask to verify a patient's identity?

Verifying a patient's identity is a critical step in ensuring safe and effective care. Asking the patient for their name and date of birth is a widely accepted practice because these two identifiers help to confirm the individual's identity accurately. This approach minimizes the risk of errors, such as misidentifying patients or mixing up medical records.

Name and date of birth are unique to each individual and are commonly used in healthcare settings as two primary identifiers. By confirming both, you can effectively distinguish between patients with similar names or other common characteristics, leading to better safety in treatment and medication administration.

The other choices, while potentially useful for gathering information related to treatment or care, do not serve the specific purpose of identity verification as effectively. For instance, asking about medical history or current medications would not directly confirm who the patient is. Similarly, asking for an address and phone number may not be as reliable since this information might change over time or not be as unique as the combination of name and date of birth.