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Patient Acceptance of Biometrics for Patient ID Points to Hope, not Hype

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The following guest post on the use of biometrics for patient ID in healthcare was submitted by Jeremy Floyd, VP of Sales with RightPatient®.

After working in the biometrics industry for over a decade, one important lesson I have learned is that public misunderstanding of the technology for personal identification often overshadows real world results. In other words, after being pounded for years with sensationalist depictions of biometrics on the big screen, on the pages of science fantasy novels, and in the media through often gross misinterpretations of how the technology works in real life, biometrics is now being used by hundreds of millions of people around the world each and every day absent of the fears and intrepidations so often described as severe limitations to widespread adoption. For every article that prognosticates the “hype cycle” of biometrics and the “fears” that consumers won’t accept it, there is a counter example of how this technology is positively impacting many different areas of our lives.

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High acceptance levels of using biometrics for patient ID have us optimistic that the technology will have a big impact on improving patient safety in healthcare.

From an end user perspective, deployments of biometric technology in government and commercial environments generally fall into two participatory categories: mandatory and voluntary. Mandatory participation of biometric deployments generally falls under governmental use in environments such as border control, national ID, and voter registration for example. If you aren’t willing to participate and have your biometrics captured in these capacities, you will be excluded from engaging in any of these aforementioned activities which could have a severe impact on your well being and quality of life not to mention your ability to freely travel and benefit from government services.

However, mandatory deployments of biometric technology aren’t limited to governmental initiatives and can often spill over into the commercial sector. For example, a company may decide to adopt biometrics for employee time and attendance or perhaps use biometrics for access control to safeguard entry into restricted areas. In these cases, the use of biometrics may be mandatory although questions may arise as to whether an employee would have the right to refuse participation, but that’s another discussion – a different topic for a different blog post.

When you think of voluntary deployments of biometrics from a participatory perspective, think of it’s use for patient identification in healthcare, or as an added security feature to better protect smartphone access. Both of these environments are examples of places where biometrics is offered, but end users aren’t required to participate.

As a firsthand witness to the rapid growth of biometrics for patient ID in healthcare, I have visited hospitals where the technology is used and watched how patients have reacted when introduced to it. When presented with the option of using biometrics to protect their medical identities and ensure their safety throughout the care continuum with a clear understanding of how their information is protected, over 99% of patients voluntarily opt-in and enroll themselves.

Long considered the holy grail of deployment success and a positive return on investment (ROI), patient voluntary opt-ins are perhaps the single most important aspect of deployment success and points to the hope that, just like many other industries who have been entrenched in the use of biometrics for individual identification, the use of the technology to establish accurate identification in healthcare is now an important cog in overall widespread global adoption and acceptance. This point becomes an integral ingredient for hope that other hospitals and health systems around the world may follow suit and continue the growth and expansion of biometrics for patient ID by allaying any fears that patients won’t want to participate. They are indeed participating, in staggering numbers.

When framing your own perceptions of biometrics for individual identification, ask yourself whether the motivation to use it is commensurate with your own personal goals of ensuring identity protection for yourself and your family. In the case of patient identification in healthcare and in light of the millions who are subjected to medical errors and ID theft each year, is biometrics your best shot and the most effective way to protect yourself? Over 99% of patients where the technology is currently used say yes.

There is great hope for an expansion of biometrics for patient ID in healthcare.

biometric patient identificationJeremy has worked in the biometrics industry for nearly a decade and has real world experience with fingerprint, palm vein, finger vein, iris and face recognition technologies. He currently oversees the RightPatient™ Healthcare division of M2SYS Technology, including sales, business development and project management. Before taking over the Healthcare unit, Jeremy spearheaded the growth of the core biometrics division, working closely with Fortune 500 clients like ADP, JP Morgan & BAE Systems to implement biometrics in large identity management projects.

RightPatient expands the use of photo biometrics to Ireland's healthcare providers

Expanding Biometric Patient Identification to Raise Patient Safety Levels in Ireland

RightPatient expands the use of photo biometrics to Ireland's healthcare providers
new partnership brings accurate patient identification technology to Ireland's healthcare providers

Our new partnership with The Lava Group will help to improve accurate patient identification for healthcare providers in Ireland.

The following post was submitted by Michael Trader, President and Co-Founder of RightPatient®

Excited to announce that RightPatient® has partnered with The Lava Group to expand the use of photo biometrics for accurate patient identification to healthcare providers in Ireland! The goal is to expand use of our patient identification platform to Ireland’s healthcare providers who seek to implement technology that increases patient safety, prevents medical identity theft, and eliminates duplicate medical records.

The Lava Group are experts in providing innovative solutions for the criminal justice and connected health markets with 20 years of experience in some of the most complex and demanding security environments across Europe. They have a long and successful track record in biometric system integration and are well positioned to introduce photo biometrics to ensure accurate patient identification across Ireland.

Accurate patient identification across the care continuum is a persistent global challenge as healthcare organizations continue to struggle with providing an accurate, complete view of patient data across multiple, often disparate providers. Our partnership with The Lava Group is an important step in RightPatient’s efforts to solve the global patient identity challenge.

You can read the full news release on our Web site here

Expanding Biometric Patient Identification to Raise Patient Safety Levels in IrelandMichael Trader is President and Co-Founder of RightPatient®. Michael is responsible for overseeing business development and marketing activities, government outreach, and for providing senior leadership on business and policy issues.

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Patient Identification in Healthcare: Unlocking Technology to Improve Patient Safety

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In the effort to draw attention to the ongoing problems that patient misidentification in healthcare creates, we were excited at the opportunity to discuss technology options now available for hospitals to increase patient ID accuracy with the eHealth Radio Network. Listen to the brand new podcast and learn:

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Listen to this brand new podcast from the eHealth Radio network featuring RightPatient President Michael Trader discussing the current state of patient identification in healthcare

— The latest news and updates from RightPatient® President Michael Trader
— Why biometric patient ID seamless integration with an EHR system is critical 
— The impact of biometric patient identification solutions on revenue cycle management (RCM)
 Why experience in biometrics and system integration is an important attribute to evaluate when selecting a vendor
— An update on the CHIME/HeroX national patient ID challenge

Take a moment and listen in to this podcast for more information on how to solve the vexing problem of achieving 100% accurate patient ID in healthcare. Thank you to Eric Michaels and the eHealth Radio team for the opportunity!

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IntrepidNow Healthcare Podcast Highlights Patient Identification in Healthcare

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IntrepidNow Healthcare Podcast Highlights Patient Identification in Healthcare

Joe Lavelle from IntrepidNow Healthcare interviewed RightPatient® President Michael Trader to discuss the current state of patient identification in healthcare. (photo courtesy of Joe Lavelle and IntrepidNow Healthcare)

Our thanks to Joe Lavelle and his staff for inviting our President Michael Trader to the IntrepidNow podcast to discuss patient identification in healthcare. Joe invited Michael to not only talk about the current state of patient ID in healthcare and some of the problems that misidentification of patients creates, he also provided the opportunity for Michael to discuss the RightPatient® biometric patient identification platform and what distinct advantages it provides compared to other solutions on the market.

Listen in to Joe’s podcast and learn:

  • The impact of biometric patient ID solutions to eliminate duplicate medical records/overlays and sustain patient data integrity
  • How modern patient identification solutions help prevent medical identity theft and fraud at the point of service
  • How the digitization of healthcare now makes accurate patient identification essential at every touchpoint along the care continuum 
  • The rising importance and ubiquity of photos for accurate patient ID in healthcare
  • The biometric patient identification solution competitive landscape
  • Updates on The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) national patient ID challenge
  • Looking ahead to what’s next for RightPatient® in 2016

Listen to the entire interview here:

Thanks again to Joe Lavelle from IntrepidNow for inviting us to be a guest on his podcast! For a complete list of all RightPatient® healthcare biometrics podcasts, please visit our podcast landing page.

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Our Top Five Biometric Patient Identification Blog Posts of 2015

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2015 was an important year of growth and innovation for RightPatient®. We started this blog two years ago to help educate the healthcare community on the importance of establishing secure, accurate patient identification in healthcare and to establish a trusted resource to help understand how the use of biometrics for patient ID has proven to be an important tool to help increase patient safety, eliminate duplicate medical records, improve revenue cycle management, and prevent medical identity theft and fraud. 

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Read through some of our most popular blog posts on biometric patient identification in healthcare during 2015

Throughout our journey, we have shared many important posts demonstrating how our hospital partners have successfully implemented biometrics for patient identification and provided real life examples of the post deployment benefits realized. Among the dozens of posts the RightPatient® team posted during 2015, the following posts were the most popular:

  1. Uniting Accurate Patient Identification with Secure Single Sign-On (SSO) to Improve Data Integrity in Healthcare: In an effort to help continue increasing patient data integrity in healthcare, we announced a new partnership with Healthcast,  the #1 ranked single sign-on solution (KLAS, 2014) to increase patient safety and secure access to patient data. 
  2. RightPatient® Prevents Healthcare Fraud at University Health SystemHealthcare fraud and medical identity theft are two rising concerns for healthcare organizations because they jeopardize patient safety, raise the cost of care, and could lead to non-reimbursable medical procedures. University Hospital in Augusta, GA recently was able to prevent healthcare fraud in their ER through the use of the RightPatient® with photo biometrics.
  3. Removing the Word “Scan” from Iris Recognition for Healthcare BiometricsFueled by Hollywood sensationalism, iris recognition biometric identification is often depicted as “scanning” a person’s eyes with visible light. The fact is, no visible light is used with iris recognition and instead of a “scan,” iris biometrics takes a high resolution digital photograph. 
  4. Identify Unconscious, Unknown Patients with Biometric Identification TechnologyThe difficulty to identify an unconscious or disoriented patient jeopardizes patient safety in healthcare. Biometric patient identification has emerged as a technology capable of identifying patients in these conditions, but did you know that not all biometric patient ID solutions have the ability to identify unconscious or disoriented patients? 
  5. Biometric Patient Identification Implementation Should Be Higher On The Priority ListDespite the fact that accurate patient identification affects so many downstream clinical and financial activities, hospitals and healthcare organizations are still not placing enough emphasis on evaluating implementation and use of this technology as a priority. 

We will continue to research and write educational and informational posts during 2016 about the rising use of biometrics for patient identification in healthcare including case studies and examples of how our technology is helping hospitals around the world to: eliminate duplicate medical records, prevent medical identity theft and fraud, increase patient data integrity, and improve patient safety. 2015 was a year of significant growth for RightPatient® as we continue working toward our mission to offer the most innovative and comprehensive patient identification solution that increases patient safety, reduces costs, improves the quality of care, and enhances the patient experience. 

Curious to know more about the use of biometric patient identification in healthcare? Is there a topic that you would like to learn more about? Drop us a message at: jtrader@rightpatient.com with your ideas and suggestions!

Thank you for being a part of our blog community!

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Patient Identification in Healthcare: The Year in Review

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2015 was another breakout year for the healthcare industry. From the transition to ICD-10 to advancements (or lack thereof) in interoperability to the expanding role of big data, 2015 demonstrated that healthcare continues to be in the throes of a major transition spearheaded by rapid digitization of the industry. While the jury is still out on exactly what type of lasting impact the events of 2015 will have, one area that stands out is the increased attention of establishing accurate patient identification.

There are simply too many downstream activities affected by accurate patient identification in healthcare to continue pushing the issue to the back burner of priorities, so we were quite pleased that 2015 seemed to be the year where the topic of accurate patient ID is finally getting the attention it deserves at the front of the line.

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Did accurate patient identification in healthcare receive more attention in 2015?

Here is a recap of notable and influential patient identification news and events that we identified as the most impactful in 2015:

#1 – CHIME flexes its clout. Big time.

  • The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) issues national patient ID challenge: Few things get people excited about an initiative than monetary incentives. In March of 2015, CHIME issued a challenge to help discover the most innovative solution to patient matching. The incentive? 

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Our take: CHIME’s national patient ID challenge is flat out smart. Dangling the financial carrot to the healthcare industry will surely spur innovative approaches to solving this issue and motivate health IT vendors to step up and address the challenge. Wholeheartedly backed by a coalition of influential organizations and individuals in healthcare, the challenge is poised to foster creative approaches to solving this dangerous and festering problem in healthcare.  

“We must first acknowledge that the lack of a consistent patient identification strategy is the most significant challenge inhibiting the safe and secure electronic exchange of health information. As our healthcare system begins to realize the innately transformational capabilities of health IT, moving toward nationwide health information exchange, this essential core functionality – consistency in accurately identifying patients – must be addressed. As data exchange increases among providers, patient data matching errors and mismatches will become exponentially more dangerous and costly.” (CHIME’s letter to Congress, May 7, 2014 http://bit.ly/1NVNvzk)

Our take: CHIME’s letter to Congress could be a watershed moment to finally push accurate patient identification into the forefront of priorities for the healthcare industry. Since CHIME is a very influential organization that Captiol Hill pays attention to, their public push to move forward on finding a viable solution to accurate patient identification in healthcare could prove to be the tipping point to solve this serious issue. In addition, at a Congressional hearing in June, CHIME publicly stated in a hearing convened by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) that advancing accurate patient identification in healthcare will, “radically reduce medical errors and save lives.”

#2 – AHIMA adds their voice and influence to push for a patient identification solution

Our take: As more well established and influential healthcare organizations lend their voices to solving the patient identification issue, the odds of discovering a solution will precipitously increase. Long viewed as a conscientious problem with too many complexities to solve, many healthcare professionals are finally coming to the conclusion that patient identification in healthcare is a single catalyst that directly influences the success or failure of many other initiatives in the industry: interoperability, health information exchange, and mHealth to name a few. We are pleased that AHIMA is more openly wielding its impact as a respected and trusted organization on such a critical issue in healthcare.

#3 – FHIR is great, but will interoperability never work without a national identifier

“There’s people out there who think that with FHIR we’ve solved all the problems. We haven’t, because we’re not authorized to solve lots of the problems” (Graham Grieve on frustrations of the moratorium Congress enacted to block funding research on a national patient identifier: http://bit.ly/1O3HbGK

Our take: Without sounding like a broken record or belaboring the point, for quite some time we have voiced concerns about advancing interoperability in healthcare without first addressing the need to establish accurate patient identification.  When you hear a quote like the one from Graham Grieve above from someone battling on the front lines of interoperability, it lends even more credence to the argument that it seems rather pointless and futile to continuing spending millions to advance interoperability in healthcare without having the ability to accurately identify patients in disparate health systems.

#4 – Biometric patient identification deployments continue to rise

  • More on this topic in next week’s post, but 2015 was a banner year for biometrics in healthcare. From single sign-on to access control to accurate patient identification, we observed a rapid increase in the deployment of biometrics at hospitals across the globe. Research firm Tractica forecasts that the nascent global healthcare biometrics market revenue will hit $3.5 billion in revenues by 2024, foreshadowing the tremendous potential of this technology and making it one of the most promising opportunities for the biometric industry.

What’s your take on the year on patient identification in healthcare? What moments or events stand out to you? Leave us a note in the comments section!

Next week: RightPatient® – The Year in Review — a short post of our major accomplishments during 2015. Stay tuned!

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Why Experience Matters When Selecting a Biometric Patient Identification Solution

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The following post was submitted by Jeremy Floyd, Healthcare Director with RightPatient®

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” — Albert Einstein

Investing in health IT technology is a complex process which often involves evaluating multiple vendor solutions before ultimately deciding to make an investment. Steering committees and hospital evaluation teams take meticulous care to carefully assess the pros and cons of each solution to determine the best fit for their organization. One key vendor attribute that should be included in the evaluation process is experience. However, the reality of health IT today is that a large swath of health IT technologies are brand new, borne from the massive shift to digital healthcare spurred by the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use. Consequently, many vendors don’t have a substantial track record of experience in their speciality to evaluate because their solutions are brand new and only recently entered the market. 

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Evaluating experience is an important factor when deciding which biometric patient identification solution to implement.

I am often asked at trade shows and conventions about our experience in biometrics and how that shaped our strategy when we developed RightPatient® – the healthcare industry’s most comprehensive patient identification solution that increases patient safety, reduces costs, improves the quality of care, and enhances the patient experience. People want to know how our past experience and long track record in global biometric identification management projects helped shape our patient identification platform and what lessons we learned from other verticals where biometrics is used that we were able to incorporate into RightPatient®. My answer is always the same…experience in biometrics matters. A lot. Here’s why:

— Experience breeds innovation – When we embarked on the journey to develop a biometric patient identification solution for the healthcare industry, we carefully studied our past experience with biometric deployments in different verticals (border control, voter registration, law enforcement, workforce management, national ID, financial services, single sign-on) to determine what we could learn from their success that would be integral ingredients for RightPatient®. The ability and flexibility to innovate jumped out as one of the most important deployment characteristics we knew RightPatient® needed – in other words, the ability to innovate as a patient identification vendor by consistently improving our platform to addresses the dynamic, and constantly evolving needs of the industry. 

For example, we identified the growing concern from hospital staff about the need to develop a wireless camera to identify patients bedside, or in special situations (e.g. handicapped patients) – a device unencumbered by USB cables and free from the often crowded workstation on wheels (WOW). We listened to customer feedback, leveraged our technological expertise in biometrics, and developed a wireless camera with a sleek, modern design and touchscreen interface combined with fast photo capture and identification.

Innovation helps bring continuity to the fragmented healthcare market. It is the responsibility of any healthcare technology vendor to consistently cultivate new ideas that are a direct response to the evolving challenges healthcare systems face.  

— Experience brings variety – The ability to offer a choice of biometric hardware modalities for hospitals to use is another great example of how our experience in biometrics reminded us that this is not a “one-size-fits-all” technology. Offering a choice of biometric modalities to use for patient identification is important because although most biometric hardware devices work reliably on a large percentage of the population, factors such as skin integrity, age, and ethnicity can negatively affect the ability of these devices to capture biometric attributes for 100% of the patient population.

In addition, the use of a single biometric modality for patient identification in the modern healthcare age ignores the reality that effective patient ID must be looked at holistically, and technology implemented simply must have the ability to identify patients at ANY point along the care continuum – whether that is in person at a hospital or in a virtual environment such as a telemedicine or using a patient portal.  Instead of pigeonholing hospitals into using one modality, instead we offer a variety of modalities that can be used simultaneously to meet the new demands of accurate patient identification.

— Experience makes system integration seamless: 13 years of experience in biometrics has provided us with deep experience and expertise in system integration. Experience that taught us the importance of developing pre-built integrations of RightPatient® for various healthcare systems like Epic, Cerner®, Meditech, McKesson, and IBM Initiate® to becomes a seamless part of the provider workflow and maximize operational efficiency. Based on our track record developing biometric identification systems around the world, we understand that hospital IT staff is stretched thin with myriad responsibilities and commitments so we handle a majority of the pre-configuration and deployment logistics prior to go live that helps reduce the burden on hospital resources. Experience taught us that just like any other technology deployment, health systems who invest in biometrics for patient identification want a seamless experience that does not waste internal resources and a platform that instantly becomes a part of staff workflow.

Does experience matter when selecting a biometric patient identification vendor? Absolutely. Our dedicated team of scientific engineers and technologists deliver over 20 years of combined experience in healthcare, biometric technology, cloud applications, system integration, high-performance computing, and human factor engineering, ensuring that you will always be provided with innovative, scalable, and practical solutions that are the best possible fit for your needs.

Learn more about how we are leading the biometric patient identification market through creative innovation by visiting our Web site.

biometric patient identificationJeremy has worked in the biometrics industry for nearly a decade and has real world experience with fingerprint, palm vein, finger vein, iris and face recognition technologies. He currently oversees the RightPatient™ Healthcare division of M2SYS Technology, including sales, business development and project management. Before taking over the Healthcare unit, Jeremy spearheaded the growth of the core biometrics division, working closely with Fortune 500 clients like ADP, JP Morgan & BAE Systems to implement biometrics in large identity management projects.

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Why Telemedicine Needs Secure Patient Identification

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Telemedicine/Telehealth is growing….fast

It’s difficult to call telemedicine the shiny new object in healthcare, mostly because it’s origin can be traced back to the first half of the 20th century.  In fact, the first people to use video communication for medical purposes were clinicians at the University of Nebraska who in 1959 established a two-way television setup to transmit information to medical students across campus, and five years later linked with a state hospital to perform video consultations. (source: http://evisit.com/history-of-telemedicine/

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The rising use of telemedicine services in healthcare demands a more holistic approach to accurate patient identification.

Since then, telemedicine has rapidly evolved as a trusted source of care, particularly for patients living in rural areas who traditionally have limited access to healthcare, and the industry is expected to reach 7 million patients worldwide by 2018, fueling an 18 percent growth rate by 2020. This is good news for a wide swath of key players in healthcare, especially providers who are already laser focused on advancing healthcare’s “triple aim” – improving the patient experience, improving population health, and reducing the per capita cost of care, plus telemedicine has proven to be a strong tool to increase patient engagement. Patients stand to benefit handsomely from advances in telemedicine too for its convenience and accessibility, quickly latching on to the “care when and where you want it” mantra of the technology.

Yet, for all it’s convenience and increased accessibility, healthcare providers should take caution on procedures in place to identify patient identities prior to administering telemedicine services. Advances in telemedicine combined with an influx of newly insured patients under The Affordable Care Act have undoubtedly spawned opportunities for patients to commit fraud by stealing or swapping identities to receive services they aren’t eligible for. Undoubtedly the issue of limited reimbursement continues to be a major barrier to the expansion of telehealth — shouldn’t providers pay more attention to adopting technology that establishes a concrete and indisputable audit trail for telemedicine services?

What can telemedicine healthcare providers do to increase patient identification accuracy and adopt a strategy that has the capability to address the need to ensure a patient is who they claim to be?

Telemedicine patient ID laws murky, differ from state to state

As is the case with administering a lot of other digital health tools in healthcare, rules and regulations are fragmented and differ from state to state. Some states like Maryland, Virginia, and New Mexicohave laws and regulations that facilitate the greater use of telemedicineyet others such as Texas are actively seeking to pass laws that restrict telemedicine services to only those patients who have previously seen a doctor. 

Regulating telemedicine is a tricky endeavor in healthcare. Most healthcare providers (especially those in medically underserved, rural communities) want to see the expansion of telemedicine because of the potential gains in individual and population health plus increasing the convenience of healthcare delivery helps build patient loyalty and speciality physician access. Think about how much good will is built with chronically ill patients who don’t have to make a painful journey to the doctor’s office to receive care!

However, the potential risks of fraud and medical identity theft by telemedicine patients because of the apparent ease of assuming another person’s identity threatens to jeopardize patient safety and compromise patient data integrity which is essential to maintain in an era of increased interoperability and data sharing. Perhaps Alison Diana, formerly of Information Week, summed it up best by saying: “With multiple organizations providing their well-meaning suggestions, states following their own rules, and insurers taking various strategies, telehealth adoption is hampered by fear, uncertainty, and doubt.”

What’s clear is that telemedicine is yet another tool in a provider’s toolbox that deserves the same patient identification scrutiny and caution given to a face-to-face encounter. Health data security is an issue in healthcare that has evolved beyond brick and mortar identification scenarios and expanded to any point along the care continuum where a patient has access to data or care services. As President and CEO Russell Branzell and Board Chair Charles Christian of CHIME said, “As data exchange increases among providers, patient data matching errors and mismatches will become exponentially more dangerous and costly.” (source: http://www.globalmed.com/telehealthanswers/telehealth-data-security-and-a-national-patient-id/

With the number of employers increasing employee telemedicine service offerings and the number of people now eligible for these services now estimated to be in the tens of millions, the healthcare industry has a vested interest to ensure 100% accurate patient identification. 

Holistic patient identification is the new norm

The digital age of medicine has created a host of new patient touchpoints along the care continuum that require healthcare providers to reassess their patient identification policies to ensure that patients are safe, treatment is accurate, protected health information is attributed to the correct medical record and fraud does not cause medical errors that could increase provider liabilities. The conundrum for healthcare providers is identifying a patient identification technology that has the capability to provide accurate patient identification no matter where a patient is along that care continuum and can flexibly be used at ANY touchpoint, regardless if it’s virtual or physical.

What’s interesting about the explosion of these new patient touchpoints and accessibility is that provider focus (justifiably) is usually targeted on technology, compliance, and reimbursement — all important components to ensure success. For example, articles prognosticating about what telemedicine needs to succeed rarely address adopting stricter patient identification technology to protect both patient and provider. However, our field research demonstrates that healthcare providers are increasingly paying closer attention to perhaps the most essential element of any digital health tool, the absolute necessity of ensuring accurate patient identification prior to administering care.

When it comes to accurate patient identification, telemedicine should not be treated any differently than, say, access to a patient portal or a physical trip to a doctor’s office. Holistic patient identification accuracy protocols that have the flexibility to be used in different capacities but ultimately to achieve the same purpose — ensuring patient identification accuracy and patient data integrity no matter when or where a patient seeks access to medical information or services.

Photo biometrics a perfect fit for patient ID in telemedicine

One patient identification technology surging to meet the demand for holistic patient identification in healthcare is biometrics.  The use of biometrics for accurate patient identification in healthcare offers immediate, sustainable benefits (increases in patient safety, reductions of duplicate medical records, elimination of fraud) but what often goes unnoticed are broader, tangential advantages that can be applied to new patient touchpoints along the care continuum.

For example, a healthcare provider using photo biometrics for patient identification in healthcare can ensure accurate patient identification at the point of service then have the ability to verify that same patient’s identity through a portal, or prior to a telemedicine session using facial recognition. Hospital re-admission reduction provides an excellent example of a tangential benefit biometrics delivers to the healthcare industry. By ensuring the accuracy of a patient’s identity during a home health visit or telemedicine session (key components to reduce re-admits), healthcare providers can administer accurate, timely patient care that helps reduce the possibility of a re-admission which significantly adds to the cost of care and can result in Medicare reimbursement reductions. 

Biometrics for patient identification offers another distinct advantage to telemedicine — an indisputable audit trail. Healthcare providers can rest assured that they now have a concrete list showing which patient accessed telemedicine services and what day and time they received the services. In this era of shifting regulations and evolving legislation, healthcare providers who implement photo biometrics for patient identification are at a distinct advantage over those that may rely on more antiquated methods to verify patient identities.

Although the use of photo biometrics for holistic patient identification across the care continuum is a new concept in healthcare, more providers understand its value and are exploring the use of this technology. 

Is patient identification for telemedicine services a concern for you? What specific challenges do you face?

Leave us a comment below!

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Improving Mobile Patient Identification with Wireless Technology

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Patient Identification isn’t Cookie Cutter

You know the drill. A trauma patient is whisked into the emergency room bypassing the normal registration process to receive immediate care. Despite the patient’s condition, you as a patient registration representative are still responsible for establishing the patient’s identity, verifying their insurance eligibility, and ensuring that services rendered are allocated to the proper electronic medical record so the hospital can maintain high levels of data integrity and secure accurate revenue cycle compensation. Or, perhaps a handicap or disabled patient arrives at your facility and you may have to adjust normal registration procedures to compensate for their condition which may involve approaching the patient in the waiting room instead of asking them to approach you. 

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Particularly in emergency situations, wireless biometric patient identification devices offer convenience and portability to ensure patient safety.

The following post was submitted by Brad Marshall, Enterprise Development Consultant with RightPatient®

Whatever the case may be, some hospitals that have implemented biometrics for patient identification now have the ability to use a wireless camera to identify a patient at bedside or in-person, adding registration flexibility and removing the need to deal with the often cumbersome tangle of wires, USB cables, and devices on computers on wheels (COWs) or workstation on wheels (WOWs).  These hospitals understand that wireless, portable patient identification offers distinct advantages to quickly identify patients with special conditions without the restrictions of a USB connection that may limit mobility and waste valuable time. 

The Flexibility of Free Standing Patient Identification in ED or Bedside

The ability to quickly, easily, and accurately identify patients in emergency situations can often be the difference between life and death. Think about identifying an unconscious or unknown patient who arrives in the Emergency Department (ED) with a long medical history that includes medication allergies or important pre-existing conditions. Treating a patient in the absence of this critical health data not only endangers their health, but it presents a huge liability to the hospital should something go wrong based on missing or incomplete information. Not to mention that fact that in healthcare, especially in emergency situations, seconds matter.

Patient registration staff and clinicians both need the convenience and portability of a wireless biometric patient identification device that can be used to quickly determine a patient’s identity at any physical touchpoint along the care continuum. Think for a moment about the importance of verifying a patient’s identity at bedside. Accurate patient identification is not only an important safety protocol, but it also offers a variety of other benefits including:

Innovative wireless patient identification devices increase productivity by saving time without compensating accuracy during the registration process. Characterized by their mobility and efficiency, these devices are configured to seamlessly communicate with biometric patient identification systems integrated with electronic health record (EHR) platforms to ensure 100% accuracy.

Conclusion

Wireless devices are revolutionizing patient identification in healthcare by combining the speed and accuracy of biometrics with a convenient and portable design that eliminates the frustration of maneuvering cumbersome COWs and WOWs and the restrictions of USB connected devices. Specifically designed to ensure patient safety, lower hospital liability, and strengthen and sustain patient data integrity, wireless patient identification devices almost seem to be a “must have” for any hospital that is vested in ensuring the highest quality care, especially amid challenging conditions. 

Interested in learning more? Drop us a note and we will be happy to set up a no obligation demo to show you firsthand how these devices operate, and provide more details about the advantages.

Brad Marshall works for RightPatient - the industry's best biometric patient identification solution.Brad Marshall is an Enterprise Development Consultant with RightPatient®. With several years of experience implementing both large and small scale biometric patient identification projects in healthcare, Brad works closely with key hospital executives and front line staff to ensure project success.

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In Your Face: The Future of Federated Patient Identification

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The following guest post was written by Michael Trader, Co-Founder and President of RightPatient®

The Patient ID Problem

The recurring and complex issue of how to establish and maintain accurate patient identification in healthcare and how to establish a federated patient identity is getting a lot of attention these days. Accurate patient identification in healthcare is a topic that has always garnered attention and concern, but perhaps it has gained momentum and urgency due to the rapid digitization of the industry and the concerted push for interoperability and national health information exchange to improve individual and population health. The push for increased interoperability could make patient data matching errors and mismatches exponentially more problematic and dangerous and it is widely believed that inadequate patient identification continues to jeopardize patient safety and artificially inflate the cost of care.

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Can the use of facial recognition biometrics help establish a federated patient identity credential in healthcare?

Opinions on the most effective patient identification and patient matching strategies run the gamut. Some say standardizing patient demographic data will help, others feel that establishing a national patient identifier is the answer to the problem. What’s clear is that in the absence of any broad improvements to patient identification, the goal of establishing longitudinal patient records reflecting a patient’s experience across the care continuum, payers, geographic locations, and stages of life, will remain elusive. 

One idea that is catching on with healthcare providers to help improve patient identification in healthcare is capturing a photo during registration that is linked to a unique electronic medical record. 

Use of Patient Photos Increasing

Nearly 2.3 million people were victims of medical identity theft in 2014, according to the “Fifth Annual Study on Medical Identity Theft” released earlier this year by the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA), an industry trade association of healthcare providers, payers and service providers – a 21% increase over the 2013 number of 1.8 million. Medical identity theft and healthcare fraud continue to be a pervasive problem throughout the industry and in the absence of a solution, the problem is only going to get worse as millions more Americans are brought into the healthcare fold through Obamacare. 

To help fight the increase in medical identity theft and to ensure a patient’s identity is accurately verified at each step along the care continuum, many healthcare facilities are capturing a patient’s photo at registration and linking that to a unique electronic medical record. The idea is an attempt to protect patient privacy, ensure accurate insurance benefits and subsequent reimbursement, and connect a face with a name, providing another option for identification besides date of birth. The idea is catching on quickly and many are embracing the use of patient photos to increase security and improve patient safety, but what often goes unrealized is the potential for a patient photo to be leveraged as a unique identification credential across the entire care continuum.

Leveraging Patient Photos for a Federated Identity Across the Care Continuum

Whenever we hear the words “patient identification” most of us envision sitting across a registration desk at a hospital or doctor’s office providing demographic data and our driver’s license and/or insurance card. However, patient identification in healthcare has evolved to now include accurate identification at each and every patient touchpoint along the care continuum including patient portals, mhealth apps, telehealth, and home health just to name a few. One of the smartest strategies to ensure accurate patient identification at any point along the care continuum is to capture a patient’s photo at registration and then leverage that photo along the care continuum through biometric facial recognition technology. 

Let’s take patient portals for example. Most of us know that Meaningful Use Stage 2 mandates that healthcare providers provide patients the ability to electronically view, download, and transmit health information. The most popular means to that end is the increasing use of patient portals yet many providers rely on antiquated identification protocols such as user names and passwords to protect access to this personal health information (PHI). The problem is relying on user names, passwords, and/or personal identification numbers (PINs) is risky and could potentially open the door to third party data breaches which are decimating the industry and exposing millions of patients’ PHI. 

As an alternative to using user names and passwords, consider a healthcare organization that captures a patient’s photo during registration. Not only is that photo visible to patient registration staff and clinicians at each episode along the care continuum as a second form of multi-factor authentication, but if a patient signs into a patient portal and the hospital has deployed facial recognition identification to authorize a patient’s identity prior to logging in, the hospital has just successfully leveraged that photo as an identification credential for access to their PHI. Same goes for mHealth apps. Biometric patient identification providers that offer the value and flexibility of facial recognition authentication can also help third party developers and healthcare providers add this technology to off-the-shelf (OTS) or custom mHealth apps as a more secure way of identifying patients with the ability to work with any standard camera. 

Coupled with the fact that 80% of patients are open to healthcare interactions on smart devices but remain highly sensitive to sharing health data, facial recognition biometrics for accurate identification has already proven itself as a more secure alternative than user names and passwords not to mention the fact that 69% of 16 -24 year olds recently polled indicated they believe biometrics will be faster and easier than passwords and PINs and half foresee the death of passwords by the year 2020.  

Writing on the Wall?

With predictions that 50% of smartphones sold by 2019 will have a fingerprint sensor and over a billion biometric mobile devices will ship worldwide by the year 2020 (all equipped with cameras sophisticated enough to use facial recognition), the evolution of patient identification in healthcare is tilting more towards the use of biometrics to replace user names, passwords, and PINs as the preferred method of authentication due to it’s increased security and the flexibility to apply the technology for accurate identification at more patient touchpoints borne from the rapid digitization of the industry. Considering the fact that 41% of consumers stress over smartphone mobile security and biometrics are already overtaking passwords as the de facto identification credential on smartphones, could this be the perfect storm for a rise in the use of facial recognition for accurate patient identification?

Responsible approaches to improving patient identification in healthcare must now include addressing accuracy at any touchpoint where a patient can now access PHI. The advent of facial recognition as a unique identifier in a singular or multi-factor environment is a smart answer to the challenge of ensuring a patient receives accurate care throughout the continuum no matter if they are physically present or accessing services from cyberspace.

Since more patients expect providers to ensure privacy and protect their PHI, is it time to more closely examine implementation of a patient identification solution that leverages biometric facial recognition? 

In Your Face: The Future of Federated Patient IdentificationMichael Trader is President and Co-Founder of RightPatient®. Michael is responsible for overseeing business development and marketing activities, government outreach, and for providing senior leadership on business and policy issues.