A patient monitoring system (8) monitors physiological functions of a plurality of patients (12). Each clinician (10) and each patient (12) has an associated identification device (20, 22), which each includes an identification code corresponding to respective clinician and patient. Each identification device (20, 22) includes a respective body-coupled communication device (24, 26) for communicating the identification code to a medical device (14). The clinician (10) activates the medical device (14) which includes a body-coupled communication device (40) including an ID reader (42). The ID reader (42) scans the area to detect whether the clinician identification is present. After the clinician's identification code is read, the medical device (14) is ready to take measurements. The clinician (10) takes the medical device (14) to the patient (12). The ID reader (42) scans the area to detect the patient identification code. The result of the measurement along with the patient identification code is stored in a medical device memory (56) and later transferred to a patient record in a hospital database (70).
