Becker's Hospital Review

22 Executive Briefing Imprivata PatientSecure offers multiple methods for biometric identification including palm-vein and iris scans. Providers can use the palm-vein technology in any workflow, including when the patient is unconscious. The iris technology allows a touchless identification process with single-step photo capture during enrollment. Addressing some of the potential economic impacts of patient misidentification, the Imprivata solution proactively eliminates the creation of duplicate and overlaid medical records. By integrating with a healthcare organization's ADT, EHR, kiosk, and EMPI systems, and eliminating duplicate medical records and overlays, Imprivata PatientSecure can help prevent medical errors and adverse events caused by misidentification. Additionally, the technology helps prevent medical identity theft. "Industry-leading organizations employ technology, such as biometrics, to streamline the admission process and eliminate patient misidentification as well as the need for repeat proofing of a patient's identity," says Aaron Miri, CIO and vice president of government relations at Imprivata. "This focus on process, people, and technology will ultimately lead to a better patient experience and to higher reimbursement." How Imprivata PatientSecure helped this hospital obviate risks Community Hospital Anderson (CHA), a 207-bed licensed facility in Indiana, implemented Imprivata PatientSecure to boost financial performance and patient safety. Executives felt the hospital was exposed to various risks because it struggled to correctly identify patients. "Patient identification is so important," says Beth Tharp, president and CEO of CHA. "It's the foundation of patient safety and quality." Moreover, whenever CHA misidentified a patient, the hospital lost money because of labor costs to rework the error and staff time to re-register the patient and re-do the patient record. "Any time you impact care, it could be expensive, not just quality-wise, but from a litigation perspective," says John Harris, CFO of CHA. "You set yourself up for risk." CHA has been faced with the costly endeavors of sorting through duplicate medical records and handling stolen patient identities. "Identity theft is very expensive; it's very labor intensive and a very sore spot in healthcare," adds Mr. Harris. "And those [patients] who get their IDs stolen are understandably upset with us; so we want to mitigate that." Ms. Tharp emphasizes this critical aspect of patient trust and confidence in a healthcare organization. "If patients receive the wrong bill or they're registered incorrectly, they will question everything that we've done for them," she explains. CHA's director of revenue cycle, Terri Rinker, agrees that hospitals' registering and billing processes have an outsized effect on patient trust. If patients can't rely on a hospital to complete tasks they view as simple, they won't have confidence in the hospital to perform complex medical procedures. As a result, proper identification impacts more than a patient's safety and a hospital's bottom line. It can make or break the relationship between a hospital and a patient. To address its patient identification problems, CHA turned to Imprivata, whose mission is to enable healthcare securely by establishing trust between people, technology, and information. "We really looked at this as a 'must have,'" says Mr. Harris. "We really feel passionately about [Imprivata PatientSecure], not just for quality reasons but also for confidence reasons, and for the cost of misidentification and duplicate medical records and identity theft. It's well worth the money and well worth the investment." Conclusion A hospital's health will suffer if patients' health is at risk due to highly preventable errors like misidentification. CHA believes investing in a patient identification solution like Imprivata PatientSecure positively impacts its bottom line while reflecting a commitment to patient safety and experience. CHA is one of more than 350 hospitals using Imprivata PatientSecure. n Imprivata®, the healthcare IT security company, provides healthcare organizations globally with a security and identity platform that delivers authentication management, fast access to patient information, secure communications, and positive patient identification. Imprivata enables care providers to securely and efficiently access, communicate, and transact patient health information to address critical compliance and security challenges while improving productivity and the patient experience.

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