Michigan to use biometrics for patient records
The state of Michigan will soon implement PatientSecure, a biometrics-based solution to streamline its patient care record system. PatientSecure is designed by HT Systems. It uses palm vein pattern technology for accurate identification and verification in order to protect patient records from error and fraud, as well as reduce administrative costs for health care providers.
Carl Bertrams, Senior Vice President of sales and marketing at HT Systems/PatientSecure said, in an article in Infosecurity that: “The PatientSecure technology provides Michigan healthcare providers with an extremely accurate way to identify patients as they move within and between healthcare systems. It is non-invasive, easy to use and universally accepted with a 99 percent patient adoption across the country.”
The state government will roll out the technology through its Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN), which operates a “Health Information Technology (HIT) Cyber Security Program”.
MiHIN’s evolving HIT Cyber Security program currently consists of the ability to conduct vulnerability assessments and continuous threat monitoring for health care networks. The offering allows organizations pursing the top level of vigilance when sharing data electronically to have high confidence their systems are achieving best practice levels of performance.
“As MiHIN continues to develop a robust HIT Cyber Security Program aligned with our mission as the State of Michigan designated entity, it is clear that solutions designed to raise everyone’s confidence that individuals doing business over the network are who we think they are is increasingly essential,” said Tim Pletcher, Executive Director of MiHIN. “As more organizations in Michigan adopt the PatientSecure solutions by HT Systems our state will see similar benefits in decreased medical and administrative errors related to identity as those major health systems in other states have already.”
HT Systems’ flagship solution PatientSecure is a biometric patient identification management system that captures an image of palm vein patterns and automatically links patients to their unique medical record providing accurate identification of every patient, improving patient safety, guarding against medical identity theft and insurance card fraud, reducing human errors and reducing cost associated with registration issues such as duplicate medical records and overlays. Over 160 hospitals and hundreds of affiliated clinics and physician’s practices currently use PatientSecure across the country. Over five million patients are currently enrolled in the PatientSecure system and tens of thousands of those same patients are successfully authenticated on a daily basis on return visits. BiometricUpdate