NYU’s Langone Medical Center is getting a jump on that whole 21st-century medication thing by ditching the clipboards and paperwork for palm scans and digital databases. On June 5th the hospital threw the activate an electronic patient-tracking program from Epic Systems and matched it with biometric identification technology from PatientSecure, which scans the veins in persons hands using near-infrared light. In place of being forced to fill out forms together with your insurance info and social security number anytime you visit, you just place your hand on a scanner and — ta-da! — your records come right up. By combining the vasculature scans (which can be much more unique than fingerprints) with patient photos, NYU ought to be in a position to minimize misidentification and diminish on duplicate records. Instead of exit on some cheesy pun about palm reading, we’ll leave the predictable word play to the people at ABC news — investigate their coverage after the break alongside PR from the Langone Medical Center.
NYU Langone First Hospital in Northeast to exploit Near Infrared Palm Scanning Technology to spot Patients
June 14, 2011 – 10:00am
Helps Make sure the Right Take care of the suitable Patient, Prevent Medical Identity Theft
and decrease Administrative Hassles
NYU Langone Medical Center announced today that it’s the first medical center within the Northeast to take advantage of PatientSecure™ – a cutting-edge biometric technology – to spot patients. Utilizing near infrared light to map a picture of the blood-flow pattern throughout the veins in a person’s palm, the digital palm image is converted right into a unique patient identifier that interfaces with the medical center’s electronic health record system.
“Vein patterns are 100 times more unique than fingerprints,” said Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, senior vice chairman and vice dean, chief of hospital operations at NYU Langone. “Thus, PatientSecure provides a secure, secure, easy and fast way for our patients to register for care on the medical center. It not just protects privacy and enhances quality, but will transform the patient experience.”
The advanced technology of PatientSecure helps to make sure each patient is properly “linked” to the perfect medical record, a job which isn’t always as straightforward because it sounds. For instance, on the medical center alone, two or more patients share the identical first and last names greater than 125,000 times. Because of this, with PatientSecure a patient simply places his or her hand on a small black box and their unique identifying palm portrait automatically registers them and accesses his or her electronic health record, reducing the probabilities of misidentification and minimizing the necessity to present other identifying information after initial enrollment, similar to a driver’s license or Social Security number.
Streamlining the traditionally cumbersome registration process also helps enhance the whole patient experience from the instant the patient walks within the door and give added protection from medical identity theft because patients now not have to share personal identifying information.
NYU Langone piloted the palm scanning technology last month at their Internal Medicine Associates faculty group practice. Following the hot hospital implementation Greater than 5,000 patients embraced PatientSecure last week alone, and the numbers continue to rise.
“This technology makes you’re feeling like a VIP. You simply put your palm at the scanner and you’re done registering at your doctor’s office, no clipboard, no hassle of paperwork to ascertain in, plus, it’s absolutely secure,” said Michael Baldwin, 55, a patient at NYU Langone. “It’s immediate and instantaneous. Never in my life have I experienced health care like this before. NYU Langone’s100 percent integrated healthcare system is sort of a small city that’s all connected.”
Similarly, if a patient without identification arrives on the medical center unconscious or unable to speak, PatientSecure could be a lifesaving tool that quickly identifies the person, opens his or her electronic health record and alerts doctors to crucial information, including medical history, allergies and current medications.
Registration using PatientSecure is now available for inpatient registration on the medical centers three hospitals – Tisch Hospital, the Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. It is usually available for outpatient services on the medical center, including radiology and lab tests, in addition to at progressively more physician offices affiliated with NYU Langone. There is no such thing as a cost to patients to take part in PatientSecure.
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