Blog Posts on Patient Identification in Healthcare

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Patient Identification: The Genesis of Quality Healthcare

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What if we told you that quality healthcare and the Big Bang have more in common than you think? The crux of both these phenomena lies in one transformative event. In the healthcare sector, this event is patient identification. Accurate patient identification is the ‘Big Bang’ of superior healthcare, creating a patient-focused universe where efficiency, safety, and dependability are the standard.

Just as the Big Bang theory rationalizes our existence, accurate patient identification rationalizes the existence of an outstanding healthcare system. It is the origin, the start of everything that characterizes exceptional, efficient, and secure healthcare delivery. And at the heart of this transformative event is RightPatient – an innovative, touchless biometric patient identification solution that serves as the foundation of this healthcare universe.

Similar to the Big Bang leading to the universe’s creation, RightPatient triggers a domino effect across the healthcare spectrum, igniting a series of advantages. In a unified healthcare universe, smooth patient identification is the energy that powers interoperability and clean data exchange. With RightPatient, the patient identification challenge is resolved with unmatched precision, leading to less confusion, fewer medical errors, and increased patient safety.

RightPatient is not just a solution; it is a game-changer. It brings structure and coordination to health data across multiple networks, enhancing patient outcomes and delivering efficient care to the right patient – every time. For healthcare providers wrestling with health information exchanges and interoperability, RightPatient eliminates inconsistent records and duplicate data. It effortlessly integrates into the healthcare structure, safeguarding your patients, your data, and your bottom-line from errors and inconsistencies.

Utilizing the strength of advanced biometric technology, RightPatient ensures the unique and accurate identification of every patient. It protects against medical identity theft while boosting the overall healthcare experience. Let RightPatient guide you through our healthcare universe, helping you ensure patient safety, quality care while maintaining data integrity and hospital operational efficiency.

It’s time to embrace the ‘Big Bang’ of healthcare – patient identification, and let innovative solutions like RightPatient reshape the healthcare landscape. Discover the transformative power of RightPatient and see how it can revolutionize your healthcare services.

Schedule a demo today! For additional queries or support, visit our comprehensive FAQ & How To section.

How to Use RightPatient

  1. Request a Demo: Visit our contact page to schedule a demo of RightPatient.
  2. Integration: Once you've decided to use RightPatient, our team will work with you to seamlessly integrate it into your healthcare structure. Learn more about the integration process here.
  3. Training: We provide comprehensive training to ensure your team is fully equipped to use RightPatient effectively.
  4. Implementation: Start using RightPatient to accurately identify patients, reduce medical errors, and enhance patient safety. Read about the benefits of accurate patient identification here.
  5. Support: Our team is always available to provide support and answer any questions you may have. Visit our FAQ & How To section for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is RightPatient?
    RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification solution that ensures accurate patient identification, leading to efficient, secure, and reliable healthcare delivery. For more information, visit our blog post.
  • How does RightPatient improve healthcare delivery?
    RightPatient eliminates confusion, reduces medical errors, and enhances patient safety by ensuring accurate patient identification. It also improves health data structure across multiple networks. Learn more about its benefits in this article.
  • How does RightPatient integrate into the healthcare structure?
    RightPatient seamlessly blends into the healthcare framework, eliminating inconsistent records and duplicate data. It ensures the protection of patients, data, and the bottom-line from errors and discrepancies. Read more about its integration here.
  • How does RightPatient ensure unique and accurate patient identification?
    RightPatient harnesses advanced biometric technology to ensure the unique and accurate identification of every patient. It also protects against medical identity theft. Find out more here.
  • How can I schedule a demo of RightPatient?
    You can schedule a demo of RightPatient by visiting this link.

Revolutionizing Patient Safety with Biometric Identification: The RightPatient® Case Study

In recent years, the healthcare sector has been grappling with a pervasive issue that threatens the safety and well-being of patients: patient misidentification. This problem manifests in various forms, including medical errors, creation of duplicate records, and even patient harm. The root cause of these adverse effects is the inability to correctly identify patients every time they interact with the healthcare system. However, a revolutionary touchless biometric patient identification platform, RightPatient®, has emerged as the antidote to this critical issue.

The UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center’s Department of Radiation Medicine & Applied Sciences (RMAS), one of the many healthcare facilities that have experienced the transformative power of RightPatient® first-hand, offers a compelling success story. Initially, RMAS was burdened by the challenges of patient misidentification and the risks associated with contact-based biometric devices. However, the department managed to overcome these obstacles by transitioning to RightPatient®.

This transition represented more than a mere technology upgrade; it signified a significant leap towards improved patient safety and precise care delivery. By leveraging multiple biometric modalities, including iris and facial recognition, RightPatient® provided a touchless, hygienic solution that became instrumental in infection control within the medical facility.

But the benefits of RightPatient® extend beyond patient identification. The platform has also proven to be a powerful tool for improving data integrity. Hospitals have reported up to a 30% reduction in duplicate records, effectively eliminating prevalent issues such as medical identity theft.

Moreover, the integration of RightPatient® with renowned Electronic Health Record (EHR) providers, including Epic, Cerner, and Meditech, has optimized workflows across the healthcare system. This seamless integration, coupled with the platform’s proven effectiveness and positive patient reception, indicates a promising future for RightPatient®’s deployment in an increasing number of healthcare facilities.

The success story of RMAS serves as a testament to the transformative power of RightPatient®. From enhancing patient safety to ensuring the safe delivery of radiation treatment, this cloud-based, touchless biometric patient identification platform has emerged as an indispensable asset for healthcare providers.

RightPatient® isn’t just about data protection; it’s about protecting lives. By ensuring accurate patient identification every time, it helps healthcare providers deliver the right care to the right patient, every time. To learn more about how RightPatient® can enhance your healthcare operation’s efficiency and patient safety, schedule a demo.

How to Implement RightPatient® in Your Healthcare Facility

  1. Understand the Challenges: Recognize the issues of patient misidentification, duplicate records, and medical identity theft in your healthcare facility. Learn more about these challenges.
  2. Discover RightPatient®: Learn about RightPatient® and how it can address these challenges. Read about the benefits of RightPatient®.
  3. Experience the Difference: Schedule a demo to experience the transformative power of RightPatient®. Schedule a demo today.
  4. Implement RightPatient®: Implement RightPatient® in your healthcare facility to enhance patient safety and data integrity. Learn more about implementing RightPatient®.
  5. Integrate with EHR Providers: Seamlessly integrate RightPatient® with leading EHR providers to streamline workflows. Find out more about RightPatient®'s integration with EHR providers.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is RightPatient®?

    RightPatient® is a cloud-based, touchless biometric patient identification platform that enhances patient safety and data integrity in healthcare. It uses multiple biometric modalities, including iris and facial recognition, to accurately identify patients. Learn more about RightPatient®.

  • How does RightPatient® improve patient safety?

    RightPatient® ensures accurate patient identification, which is crucial for delivering the right care to the right patient. It also provides a touchless, hygienic solution, which is instrumental in infection control within healthcare facilities. Read more about how RightPatient® improves patient safety.

  • How does RightPatient® enhance data integrity?

    RightPatient® helps eliminate common issues like duplicate medical records and medical identity theft, which can lead to detrimental medical errors. Hospitals have reported up to a 30% reduction in duplicate records after implementing RightPatient®. Discover how RightPatient® enhances data integrity.

  • Can RightPatient® integrate with Electronic Health Record (EHR) providers?

    Yes, RightPatient® seamlessly integrates with leading EHR providers such as Epic, Cerner, and Meditech, further streamlining workflows across entire healthcare systems. Find out more about RightPatient®'s integration with EHR providers.

  • How can I experience the benefits of RightPatient®?

    You can schedule a demo to experience the transformative power of RightPatient®. Schedule a demo today.

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The Limitations of 1:Few Verification in Biometric Patient Identification and Escaping Them with RightPatient

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Did you realize the commonly used 1:Few biometric patient identification verification method isn’t as infallible as believed? Despite being a popular choice, it fails to fully prevent medical identity theft, a rising concern in the healthcare industry. This piece delves into why such widespread systems can, unfortunately, become avenues for fraud.

Traditional 1:Few verification systems are not without their flaws, particularly when it comes to safeguarding patient data. These systems, which attempt to match a patient’s biometric data with a small segment of the database, are susceptible to errors and can be breached, resulting in medical identity theft. It is critical for healthcare decision-makers to comprehend these flaws and pursue all-encompassing solutions that outperform these standard methods.

Cue RightPatient, a solution built to address the shortcomings of 1:Few verification. Contrary to other systems, RightPatient presents a sophisticated biometric patient identification system, tailored specifically for healthcare environments. It exceeds traditional verification methods, providing a thorough solution and superior protection against fraudulent activities.

With RightPatient, you’re not just acquiring a security system, you’re bolstering the efficiency and dependability of your healthcare delivery. Let’s explore the key benefits of this biometric patient identification solution:

  1. Thwarting Medical Identity Theft: RightPatient remains one step ahead of fraud, prioritizing patient data security and reducing the risks associated with 1:Few verification methods. It ensures that the patient data is protected at all costs, making it difficult for fraudsters to gain unauthorized access.
  2. All-encompassing Solution: RightPatient is more than a biometric system; it’s a comprehensive solution. It consistently outperforms other methods in maintaining patient data security, equipping you with the ability to deliver safe, trustworthy care. It offers a complete suite of features designed to prevent medical identity theft and ensure the right care is given to the right patient.
  3. Eradicating Verification Errors: RightPatient’s advanced features significantly decrease identification errors, ensuring the right care reaches the right patient – every time. By using sophisticated algorithms and machine learning techniques, the system can accurately match each patient with their unique biometric data, minimizing the chances of misidentification.

The moment is now to transition to an exemplary patient identification system. Safeguard your patients, their data, and fight medical identity theft with RightPatient. Experience significant improvements in healthcare delivery with a solution trusted by hospitals across the country for its effectiveness in enhancing patient safety and outcomes. Schedule a demo today to discover how RightPatient can help you tackle the challenges of patient identification and data security.

In conclusion, the RightPatient system is a robust, reliable, and efficient solution for patient identification in the healthcare industry. Its advanced features and comprehensive approach make it a superior choice over traditional 1:Few verification methods. By investing in RightPatient, healthcare institutions can significantly reduce the risk of medical identity theft, improve patient safety, and enhance the overall quality of care. The time to act is now – make the switch to RightPatient and secure your patients’ data like never before.

How to Implement RightPatient in Your Healthcare Institution

  1. Understand the Limitations of 1:Few Verification: Familiarize yourself with the shortcomings of traditional verification methods. Visit our blog post on patient identification in healthcare to learn more.
  2. Explore RightPatient: Learn about the advanced features and comprehensive approach of RightPatient. Check out our blog post on why telemedicine needs secure patient identification for more insights.
  3. Schedule a Demo: Experience the effectiveness of RightPatient firsthand. Schedule a demo to see how it can help you tackle the challenges of patient identification and data security.
  4. Implement RightPatient: After understanding its benefits and seeing it in action, implement RightPatient in your healthcare institution to enhance patient safety and outcomes. Read our takeaways from the 2015 NE NAHAM Regional Conference to understand how it can improve the patient experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is the main issue with 1:Few biometric patient identification verification methods?
    These methods are susceptible to errors and can be breached, leading to medical identity theft. They attempt to match a patient's biometric data with a small segment of the database, which is not always accurate or secure. For more information, visit our blog post on biometric patient identification.
  • How does RightPatient address these issues?
    RightPatient is a sophisticated biometric patient identification system designed specifically for healthcare environments. It provides superior protection against fraudulent activities and significantly reduces identification errors. Learn more about why experience matters when selecting a biometric patient identification solution.
  • What are the key benefits of RightPatient?
    RightPatient prevents medical identity theft, provides a comprehensive solution for patient data security, and eliminates verification errors. It ensures the right care is given to the right patient every time. Read more about the choice of hardware modalities for biometric patient ID.
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Elevating Patient Safety: The Power of Contactless Biometric Identification in Healthcare

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Can you believe that misidentification of patients is a significant contributor to medical errors in healthcare? These mistakes often arise from patient fraud and medical identity theft, leading to disastrous consequences and increased healthcare costs. The problem is further exacerbated by the creation of duplicate medical records, impacting the integrity of patient data. Nonetheless, there is a silver lining — the emergence of contactless biometric identification systems such as RightPatient, which are playing a crucial role in improving patient safety and refining healthcare experiences.

RightPatient, a touchless biometric identification solution, signifies a significant breakthrough in patient safety. This system not only strengthens patient identity verification but also introduces an advanced technology that instills trust in healthcare procedures. By ensuring accurate patient identification, RightPatient effectively tackles prevalent problems such as patient fraud and medical identity theft. Moreover, the issue of duplicate medical records is significantly reduced, thereby improving the integrity of patient data.

In the current healthcare landscape, controlling infection is a significant concern. RightPatient’s touchless operation minimizes the risk of hospital-acquired infections. By removing the need for patients to touch potentially infected surfaces, this contactless solution promotes safety, assures users, and conveys a sense of responsible care.

RightPatient prides itself on making sure the right patient receives the right care, every time. But how does this impressive solution function? The advanced system links biometric data to each patient’s unique electronic health record, ensuring accurate matching of each patient to their record every time they visit. This eradicates the issue of duplicate medical records, a persistent problem that has troubled healthcare institutions for years.

With biometric identification, you can safeguard your patients, your data, and your financial health. Reinforce your dedication to patient safety and achieve superior operational efficiency with the right partner — RightPatient. Request a demo today and discover how RightPatient can transform your healthcare delivery.

FAQs:

What are the key benefits of RightPatient’s biometric identification system? This system guarantees accurate patient identification, prevents patient fraud and medical identity theft, eradicates duplicate medical records, and aids in infection control efforts.

How does RightPatient’s system assist in infection control? By being a touchless solution, it removes the need for patients to touch potentially contaminated surfaces, thereby reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infections.

How-To Section:

How can you prevent medical identity theft with RightPatient? By simply integrating our contactless biometric identification solution in your healthcare institution. It assures accurate patient identification, thus effectively thwarting medical identity theft.

How can you minimize duplicate medical records with RightPatient? Our sophisticated system links biometric data to each patient’s unique electronic health record, ensuring accurate matching of each patient to their record every time they visit, thus eliminating the issue of duplicate medical records.

For more insights about RightPatient and how our contactless biometric identification solution can enhance patient safety in your healthcare institution, visit our website.

How-To Guide

  1. How to prevent medical identity theft with RightPatient?
    Implement RightPatient's contactless biometric identification solution in your healthcare institution. It guarantees accurate patient identification, thus effectively preventing medical identity theft. Here are some tips for preventing medical identity theft.
  2. How to reduce duplicate medical records with RightPatient?
    RightPatient's advanced system links biometric data to each patient’s unique electronic health record, ensuring accurate matching of each patient to their record every time they visit. This eliminates the issue of duplicate medical records. Learn more about how RightPatient solves the issue of patient identity matching.
  3. How to request a demo of RightPatient?
    Visit the RightPatient website and fill out the contact form to request a demo. Discover how RightPatient can revolutionize your healthcare delivery. Request a demo today.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is RightPatient and how does it contribute to patient safety?
    RightPatient is a touchless biometric identification solution that ensures accurate patient identification, thereby preventing patient fraud and medical identity theft. It also eliminates the issue of duplicate medical records, enhancing the integrity of patient data. Furthermore, its touchless operation reduces the risk of hospital-acquired infections.
  2. How does RightPatient's system support infection control?
    RightPatient's touchless operation eliminates the need for patients to touch potentially contaminated surfaces, thereby reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infections. Learn more about how RightPatient enhances patient safety.
  3. How does RightPatient ensure the right patient receives the right care?
    RightPatient links biometric data to each patient’s unique electronic health record, ensuring accurate matching of each patient to their record every time they visit. This eliminates the issue of duplicate medical records and ensures the right patient receives the right care. Read more about the importance of proper patient identification.
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Preventing Medical Identity Theft: The Unique Capabilities of RightPatient

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The healthcare sector is currently experiencing an unprecedented surge in medical identity theft, a crime that has been on the rise for the past several years. This escalating crime rate has shone a spotlight on the many inadequacies of the existing biometric patient identification systems in the market. However, amidst this grim scenario, there is a beacon of hope: RightPatient.

RightPatient is not merely a biometric system; it is a trusted and reliable defense mechanism against the burgeoning issue of medical identity theft that is plaguing the nation. But how does it manage to do this effectively, you might ask? The answer lies in its unique and distinctive features, which are activated as soon as the enrollment process begins.

RightPatient employs advanced biometric technology for precise patient identification and verification. With this system, patients are only able to assert a single identity, thereby fortifying not just individual medical records but also shielding the entire healthcare system from potential identity fraud.

However, the excellence of RightPatient extends far beyond this. This platform doesn’t merely nullify the threat of medical identity theft. It also significantly enhances patient safety by ensuring consistent and reliable access to complete patient history records. It is indeed patient care at its absolute pinnacle.

Additionally, RightPatient’s real-time de-duplication functionality sets it apart as a frontrunner in maintaining the integrity of patient data. By preventing the creation of duplicate medical records, it ensures the accuracy and reliability of health data, thereby fulfilling its primary objective – to augment care delivery and improve patient outcomes.

Embrace the comprehensive protection offered by RightPatient for your healthcare establishment. By opting for this solution, you not only protect your patients’ data and their lives, but you also boost trust and brand equity, one patient identification at a time.

Guarantee that the right patient receives the correct care, consistently. Shield your patients, your data, and ultimately, your bottom line with RightPatient’s biometric identification – a solution that you can trust. Learn how RightPatient is transforming patient safety and schedule a demo with us today.

For more comprehensive information about RightPatient and its capabilities, visit our FAQ and How-to Section. Together, we can make a significant leap in preventing medical identity theft and enhancing patient safety.

How to Use RightPatient

  1. Enroll in RightPatient: The process begins with enrollment. RightPatient will accurately identify and confirm your identity, ensuring you can only claim one identity after enrollment.
  2. Access Patient History: With RightPatient, you have reliable access to your complete patient history records. This enhances patient safety and ensures the right care is provided. Learn more about accessing patient history records.
  3. Prevent Duplicate Records: RightPatient's real-time de-duplication functionality prevents the creation of duplicate medical records, maintaining the integrity of your health data. Find out more about how to prevent duplicate records.
  4. Boost Trust and Brand Equity: By using RightPatient, you not only protect your data and life but also boost trust and brand equity. Learn more about how RightPatient can boost trust and brand equity.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is RightPatient?
    RightPatient is a biometric system designed to prevent medical identity theft and enhance patient safety. It uses advanced biometric technology to accurately identify and verify patients, ensuring a single identity per patient and preventing identity fraud. For more information, visit our advanced biometric technology page.
  2. How does RightPatient enhance patient safety?
    RightPatient ensures reliable access to complete patient history records, thereby enhancing patient safety. It also prevents the creation of duplicate medical records, maintaining the integrity of health data. Learn more about how RightPatient enhances patient safety.
  3. What is the real-time de-duplication functionality of RightPatient?
    RightPatient's real-time de-duplication functionality prevents the creation of duplicate medical records, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of health data. Find out more about this feature here.
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Dealing with Claim Denials in Healthcare Facilities

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Healthcare providers have always been under a lot of pressure. Patient mix-ups, identity theft cases, denied claims, medical record errors, data breaches, and patient safety incidents are just a few examples of the challenges. However, all of these issues were more visible than ever with COVID-19. Claim denials were one of the most difficult challenges, as there were more patients in need of healthcare services during the pandemic’s peak. Both healthcare providers and payers were (and still be) at odds over denied claims, and the situation will only worsen as rules and regulations change. While hospitals are already suffering from massive losses, refused claims exacerbate the situation. That being said, let’s take a look at a few strategies for dealing with claim denials in healthcare facilities.

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Strategies that can help reduce claim denials in healthcare

Provide training to the coding team

Coding errors are one of the most regular reasons for claim denials in healthcare facilities. For example, suppose a patient came in and requested healthcare services; the latter has a unique code. However, the coding team utilized the incorrect code, and when the payer inspects the claim, it is classified as denial because the incorrect code was used.

To avoid such errors, healthcare providers must train the coding team on topics such as common coding errors, coding do’s and don’ts, recent updates, and so on.

Ensure that physicians record information correctly

A lack of proper clinical documentation is another factor that contributes to claim denials in healthcare. The coding team is not responsible for every denied claim. When clinical documentation problems occur, wrong codes are almost always selected, resulting in denied claims.

As a result, healthcare providers must guarantee that physicians properly and timely record all paperwork in suitable medical records. RightPatient can aid in the proper identification of medical records and the reduction of denied claims.

Ensure that claims are submitted timely

Another reason contributing to denied claims is the failure to submit them on time, which can be easily rectified. Healthcare providers should set goals for their coding teams in order for them to process claims in a fast and accurate manner. They should, for example, categorize which batch of claims will be delivered and when they should be sent and check for errors.

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While this does not always succeed, detecting the issues that cause late submissions can assist providers in addressing the issue and reducing future claim denials.

Ensure accurate patient identification to reduce denials in healthcare

One common cause of denials in healthcare facilities is medical record errors such as duplication and overlays, the majority of which result in mix-ups, improper treatment, and, predictably, billing and coding issues. The majority of medical record errors arise because there is no standardized patient identification in the US healthcare system.

While many healthcare providers waited for a standardized and effective patient identifier while dealing with duplication and denied claims, forward-thinking health systems already prevent them with RightPatient.

RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification platform used by top healthcare organizations such as Terrebonne General Medical Center, Duke Health, Community Medical Centers, and University Hospital. RightPatient uses one of the most secure, sanitary, and non-transferable properties of patients: their faces.

During registration, patients must look at the camera; RightPatient takes a snapshot and compares it to existing medical information to identify duplication. If no matches are identified, a new EHR is created with the patient’s photo attached. Whenever the patient comes to the hospital for additional healthcare services, they only need to look at the camera, And RightPatient generates the necessary medical record in seconds.

RightPatient isn’t just for registration; healthcare providers can use the platform throughout the care continuum. After scheduling sessions, remote patients can send selfie photographs as well as a photo of their ID card. RightPatient examines the photographs for a match, then searches to see if there are any existing records, and either produces new credentials for new patients or sends the proper EHR to the hospital for existing patients.

RightPatient not only makes accurate patient identification simple, but it’s also safe, secure, clean, and seamless. Healthcare providers may smoothly link RightPatient with their EHR systems, making the latter part of the EHR workflow.

Using RightPatient, some prominent healthcare providers reduce patient misidentification, eliminate duplicate medical records, minimize denied claims, and enhance patient safety and quality.

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Common Reasons for Patient Identification Errors in Hospitals and How to Solve Them

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Positive patient identification is an important but underappreciated component of the US healthcare system. Healthcare providers maintain patient safety, appropriate medical treatment, and good healthcare results by precisely identifying patients and using their relevant electronic health information. For instance, the physicians know of the patient’s comprehensive medical history, the revenue cycle team knows which claims to submit to the insurer, and the hospital records the patient’s information in the appropriate EHR. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case; patient identification errors in hospitals are all too common and can generate a slew of issues for healthcare providers, patients, and insurance companies.

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Patient identification errors in hospitals generate a variety of issues, including:

  • Patient safety issues
  • Patient data integrity failure
  • Patient mix-ups
  • Medical record errors like duplicates and overlays
  • Denied claims
  • Detrimental patient experience 
  • Medication administration errors
  • Financial and legal issues

While those are some of the issues created by patient misidentification, let’s look at some of the common reasons why they happen in the first place, as well as how a touchless biometric patient identification platform like RightPatient ensures positive patient identification.

Common reasons for patient identification errors in hospitals

Patient misidentification during registration

In hospitals, patient misidentification is most common during registration. Patients are wrongly identified and linked to the incorrect EHRs from the start during the registration procedure. As a result, the patient will receive ineffective care because the physicians will be relying on someone else’s medical history.

The patient’s EHR is difficult to find

The registration areas are arguably high-pressure situations, as patients are constantly arriving, and a limited number of workers are required to process them for treatment. However, when the registrar examines the EHR system, they may discover that no medical records match the patient. At times, registrars may detect that too many EHRs correspond to the patient. In these instances, registrars must select an EHR, and the chances are that they will select the erroneous one, resulting in improper patient identification.

Reducing patient waiting times

As previously said, any given healthcare provider’s registration area is quite hectic. Patients are begging for treatment, and registrars are under intense pressure to shorten patient wait times. Because there is no standardized precise patient identifier in place, searching for the relevant medical records can take a long time. Because the EHR system contains tens of thousands of medical records, the registrar may wind up picking the incorrect medical record.

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Existing duplicate medical records 

This may appear perplexing, but patient identification errors in hospitals and medical record errors are inextricably linked; the other will follow naturally if one occurs.

Patient identification, for example, occurs when an incorrect medical record is picked. When the registrar searches the EHR system and finds no EHRs with the patient’s name, they create a new medical record. However, due to a lack of definite patient identification, the patient’s genuine medical record could not be identified, resulting in a new duplicate medical record.

Similarly, duplicate medical records within the EHR system are bound to induce patient misidentification because all of the records are inconsistent and fragmented, resulting in patient safety issues, incorrect treatment, and worse.

Human errors

Human error is another prominent cause of patient misidentification in hospitals. While registrars, nurses, and other healthcare workers already work in a high-stress environment, a single typing error can force them to select the wrong EHR.

Patients themselves submit false, wrong, or incomplete

Patient misidentification in hospitals happens when patients offer insufficient or incorrect information to medical employees. For example, a patient’s medical record is maintained with the name “William Smith,” yet he gives the registrar the name “Bill Smith.” The registrar will search for his medical record using the keyword “Bill Smith,” which will not yield the genuine EHR.

On the other hand, patients falsify information to obtain treatment in the name of someone else. It’s nearly impossible to identify the falsehood because healthcare providers don’t employ a reliable patient identification system throughout the states.

RightPatient can prevent all of the above and more.

RightPatient prevents patient identification errors in hospitals

RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification platform that accurately identifies patients across the treatment continuum. During the registration process, the platform captures patients’ photographs and ties them to the proper EHRs, effectively locking the medical records. When the patients return, the platform must authenticate their identities – the patients only need to glance at the camera – it’s that simple!

RightPatient enhances patient safety, minimizes denied claims, strengthens patient data integrity, and ensures that the proper patient is receiving the right treatment at all times.

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How Patient Safety and Quality in Healthcare Can be Improved With Positive Patient ID

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While COVID-19 has been arguably the most talked-about issue over the past few years, it’s not the only problem that healthcare providers face. Even now, a plethora of problems continues to plague the US healthcare system. Duplicate medical records, overlays, medical identity theft, lack of proper patient identification, labor shortages, massive financial losses, and infection control issues are just some of them. While not all of these factors are solvable by the hospitals themselves, ensuring positive patient identification can help reduce many significant problems. With that being said, today, we’ll be considering how effective patient identification can improve patient safety and quality. 

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Five ways that patient identification improves patient safety and quality

It ensures patient data integrity 

One significant issue that healthcare providers face in the US is the lack of data integrity in medical records or EHRs, which can often be traced back to patient misidentification. It’s pretty simple: if a patient has more than one EHR, their medical history, allergies, medications, vitals, etc., will be spread across several different medical records.

There are thousands of fragmented EHRs like these. As such, the patient will receive treatments based on a highly fragmented EHR; it doesn’t provide the complete collection of patient information. As a result, treatments may be inaccurate or less effective. However, there’s an even more severe scenario. In cases where there’s a lack of accurate patient identification, hospitals could use one of these EHRs to treat the wrong patient! 

The presence of positive patient identification, on the other hand, ensures patient data integrity at all times since patients are treated using accurate EHRs whenever they come in. This remains true both for virtual and inpatient visits.

It ensures positive patient outcomes

Positive patient identification ensures that accurate EHRs are associated with the correct patients across the care continuum. Doing so helps the patients receive the best possible treatment plans and care without inaccuracies, helping them recover without any unwanted incidents, thereby enhancing patient safety and quality in the process.

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Patients can receive the wrong treatment without accurate patient identification since they’re associated with incorrect medical records, which can lead to dangerous and adverse incidents. 

It reduces medical record errors

One of the biggest problems caused by patient misidentification is that it leads to medical record errors, such as duplicates and overlays. Naturally, these can be detrimental to patient outcomes. Imagine a scenario whereby a patient has multiple EHR documents; if just one of those records is used to treat them, the treatment plan would be based on incomplete information, hence leading to ineffective treatment. On the other hand, overlays are even more dangerous; these are merged EHRs, but they often belong to different patients! Whichever patient gets treated using such an inaccurate EHR record could naturally face detrimental and wrong treatments down the line unless it’s detected and resolved quickly.

Fortunately, accurate patient identification prevents medical record errors right off the bat. Ensuring that accurate EHRs are used every time that patients come in for an appointment helps avoid the creation of duplicates and overlays, thereby saving considerable costs for the hospital and improving patient safety and quality of care overall. 

It avoids mixups

Patient mix-ups can be hazardous and can even lead to the wrong patient getting the treatment or surgery intended for another. It might sound like a basic mistake that would never happen, but in reality, such an event has happened numerous times where the wrong patient received kidney transplant surgery.

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One of the most common reasons for this is because patients had similar names and characteristics on their EHRs, which can easily lead to mixups, especially in high-pressure environments. In other cases, the wrong patient may have received chemotherapy that was assigned to a different patient for lifesaving treatment. Meanwhile, patients receiving the wrong medication and so on are potentially common risks due to mixups and mistakes.

Most of these mixups can be traced back to – you guessed it – patient misidentification. As such, ensuring positive patient identification is one of the most effective ways for hospitals to prevent these mixups and avoid jeopardizing patient safety overall.

It boosts infection control efforts

It might seem a little unclear as to how accurate patient identification can help boost infection control issues? Well, integrating a touchless patient identification platform such RightPatient helps with that. RightPatient doesn’t just ensure that the patients are identified correctly across the care continuum, but it also ensures that this care is provided hygienically.

Patients only need to look at the camera for registration; the platform captures a photo and attaches it to their EHRs, essentially locking them. Whenever patients come in for subsequent visits, all they need to do is look at the camera, and the platform automatically matches the current photo with the saved one.

RightPatient is already helping several healthcare providers ensure accurate patient identification, improve patient safety, and bolster infection control efforts effectively. As such, it could be a valuable tool to implement for your own healthcare facility’s management systems, too; why not give it a try?

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Five Common Patient Safety Concerns Hospitals Must Address Effectively

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Arguably, hospitals and health systems have been facing a very rough patch due to COVID-19, and with its latest variant, Omicron, it looks like it will continue to haunt everyone for quite some time. While COVID-19 is the biggest problem right now, it’s not the only one – healthcare providers need to address several issues to treat patients effectively and safely. With that out of the way, let’s dive deep into some of the typical patient safety concerns hospitals need to address effectively.

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Five patient safety concerns hospitals need to focus on

COVID-19

Quite unsurprisingly, this tops all lists regarding patient safety concerns in the world now. This has been the most significant and unprecedented challenge healthcare providers have faced in recent years. Even with the new vaccines, rules and regulations, cases are still increasing due to the Omicron variant. 

The variant has caused several hospitals to permanently close their doors, rapid changes to the entire healthcare landscape, incorporation of telehealth into the mix and adoption of other practices – desperate times call for desperate measures. 

While hospitals have already allocated or built separate facilities to accommodate COVID-19 patients, surges created by new variants have overwhelmed them. During such surges, hospitals postpone non-emergency elective procedures and surgeries, limit visitors, shorten visiting hours and encourage telehealth to protect regular patients from catching COVID-19 at their facilities. While these have become the typical responses, it disrupts the healthcare experience for many patients – what if the non-emergency procedure is crucial for the patient, or what if the hospital suspends ALL elective procedures? These are some questions that need answers from healthcare providers. 

Healthcare staffing issues

The virus has led to another problem – a shortage of healthcare professionals. Many professionals contracted the virus. Unfortunately, some lost their lives, and others had to isolate themselves. On the other hand, hospitals incurred huge losses since elective procedures and regular healthcare visits were postponed or canceled. They had to furlough or lay off workers and introduce pay cuts. These actions led to massive shortages as nurses and other healthcare staff members had to look after far more patients than they could manage. 

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This is a huge patient safety concern because fewer healthcare staff members mean that the treatment will be rushed and compromised. Patients won’t receive the level of care they need, and increased pressure on healthcare staff members might lead to mistakes.

Issues with diagnoses

While diagnostic errors were common before COVID-19 wreaked havoc, the virus has caused many patients to miss out on scheduled diagnostic tests or even have them delayed. In the pre-pandemic era, errors such as delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose related diseases were common. However, healthcare providers were forced to delay all procedures barring COVID-19 cases to allocate resources to deal with the pandemic.

Due to such delays, the patients’ health problems worsened, leading to more complex treatment plans, higher risks and chances of patient safety incidents. Once again, healthcare providers are using telehealth to address this issue. Although diagnostic tests are virtually impossible, patients need to physically come to healthcare facilities for the tests.

HAIs – one of the most significant patient safety concerns now

Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) are quite problematic and have become one of the prominent patient safety concerns in the US, especially after COVID-19. Hospitals consist of patients suffering from different diseases, some of which are contagious. When other people, be it patients or healthcare staff members, have contact without ample protection, they’ll contract the virus as well. This is how COVID-19 has spread, and healthcare providers need to use innovative solutions and strategies to prevent HAIs. For instance, touchless patient identification platforms like RightPatient can help with infection control and reduce HAIs effectively – more on that later. 

Errors during surgeries

Surgical mistakes are one of the biggest challenges for most healthcare providers. Surgical errors come in various forms, from retained surgical instruments and wrong-site surgery to operating on the wrong patient. A frequent surgical mistake is when patients get mixed up due to common names. While there are miraculous cases where the initial patient survived, these are dangerous nonetheless.

Surgical mistakes due to patient misidentification can be prevented with a tried and tested biometric patient identification like RightPatient. Using their photos, it ensures that patients are identified accurately and safely across the care continuum.

RightPatient prevents duplicate medical records and mix-ups – preventing patient safety incidents in the process. 

How are you addressing patient safety concerns at your healthcare facility?

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Accurate Patient Identification Tops 2022’s Patient Safety Goals

RightPatient-ensures-accurate-patient-identification

There is a lot going on in the U.S. healthcare industry right now. While some might argue that the industry has always been a dynamic field, which is true, it’s safe to say that the pandemic has pushed healthcare into overdrive. While healthcare data breaches, increased hospitalizations, vaccine booster shots, and oral pills to tackle COVID-19 dominate the news, the Joint Commission has announced next year’s National Patient Safety Goals applicable beginning January 1, 2022.

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Unsurprisingly, again in 2022, the number one priority for improving patient safety, as per the Joint Commission, is identifying patients accurately. This highlights the importance of positive patient identification, which we’ve been promoting for a long time. That being said, let’s take a look at the top patient safety goals for 2022, why patient identification has been a topmost priority for years, and how RightPatient can effectively help meet those goals.

What are patient safety goals?

Every year, the Joint Commission collects information on patient safety issues that plague hospitals, health systems, and other healthcare facilities. After collecting all the data via credible sources and experts, the Joint Commission releases a list of goals that healthcare facilities need to implement in order to improve patient safety.

As healthcare is quite broad, the Joint Commission has divided it into chapters such as Ambulatory Health Care Chapter, Assisted Living Community Chapter, Behavioral Health Care & Human Services Chapter, Hospital Chapter, Home Care Chapter, etc. However, in all nine chapters, the number one goal is to identify patients correctly (residents in the case of Nursing Care Centers). This shows how imperative proper patient identification is as it’s the top priority in all the chapters.

That being said, let’s look at next year’s goals for the Hospital Chapter, as that’s our primary focus. 

2022’s patient safety goals for hospitals 

Next year, according to the Joint Commission, healthcare providers need to focus on the following goals to improve patient safety at their facilities:

  • Accurate patient identification 
  • Improving staff communication
  • Using medicine safely
  • Using alarms on medical equipment
  • Infection prevention
  • Identifying patient safety risks
  • Preventing errors in surgeries

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Comparing them with the goals for 2021, there hasn’t been any significant change in the goals or their order. But why is patient identification always the topmost goal? 

Accurate patient identification has been a priority for years

Patient misidentification isn’t anything new. Since there was a ban on creating a state-funded patient identifier around two decades ago, patient identification errors have been quite common. To this very day, a standardized and effective patient identifier doesn’t exist. Since misidentification has led to duplicate medical records, overlays, and medical record mix-ups, they have also created medication administration errors, repeated lab tests, patient data integrity failure, delays in care, transplant mix-ups, and even deaths! As a result, patient misidentification quickly became a patient safety concern. 

Every year, healthcare experts come together and demand that the ban against a state-funded patient identifier is lifted. However, to this very day, the ban on the unique patient identifier is in effect.

While different healthcare providers use various methods, solutions, and strategies for accurate patient identification, a touchless biometric patient identification platform like RightPatient is the most ideal and future-proof platform for that. In fact, RightPatient also helps with a few of the other patient safety goals – let’s explore how.

RightPatient helps improve patient safety in several ways

RightPatient is helping several leading healthcare providers enhance patient safety by protecting patient medical records, ensuring accurate patient identification, and reducing infection control issues. It captures patient photos during the registration process and attaches them to EHRs. 

For subsequent visits, returning patients only need to look at the camera for verification. RightPatient compares the live photo with the saved one and provides accurate EHRs, preventing mix-ups, duplicates, and other problems associated with misidentification. 

RightPatient can be used for remote authentication as well – patients need to provide a selfie along with the photo of their driver’s license after scheduling appointments. RightPatient compares the images, and after a successful match, provides the patients with biometric credentials – check out the video to learn more about it.

RightPatient helps with several patient safety goals: 

  • It ensures accurate patient identification
  • It prevents errors in surgeries by preventing patient mix-ups
  • It reduces infection control issues (it’s a touchless experience for both patients and caregivers)
  • It improves staff communication as redundant lab tests, mix-ups, and delays are reduced 
  • It reduces medication administration errors

How are you planning to improve patient safety at your healthcare facilities, and does the strategy include a solution that solves several problems simultaneously as RightPatient does?