Posts

Data in Healthcare and its Impact on Patient Well-Being

March 25, 2022/2092 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

How Data Implementation Improves Patient Outcomes

Data is a high-growth industry that has penetrated into virtually all areas of commerce. From a strictly business perspective, it’s no small wonder that the healthcare industry has taken to it just as surely as any other market sector.

But how does data relate to the actual healthcare process? Though data-driven patient care is a relatively young phenomenon – at least in the form it has currently taken – it has an enormous amount of potential to positively shape patient outcomes.

In this article, we take a look at how data implementation can be used to improve people’s health.

An Endless Flow of Information

The majority of healthy people only see their doctor once a year or even every other year. During these visits, they get their vitals taken, and then have a very short meeting with their physician. For years, this standard of care has been the baseline. While it has its merits, it’s also highly subject to variables that can disrupt the results.

For example, if the patient had a meal shortly before their appointment, their blood pressure will read artificially low. If they had coffee, it will be artificially high. If they are nervous, as many people are at the doctor’s office, their pulse will read very fast. If they are sleepy – and who isn’t sleepy? – it might read as unusually slow.

You get readings, but they are reflective of one select moment. They don’t necessarily represent your overall health.

Wearable health technology changes this. There are now devices that continuously log your heart rate and other key analytics that can produce a much more comprehensive view of your health.

This constant data-taking is a relatively new development, and as such, it hasn’t yet lived up to its full potential. Nevertheless, it’s a very promising prospect. Wearables, coupled with IoT technology produce a constant data stream that can give doctors an unparalleled look at their patient’s health.

Not only is this useful for people with known conditions, but it can be vital for those who are perceived as healthy. Many conditions require early detection for effective treatment. This is more possible than ever with wearable health technology.

Hospital Management

It’s no secret that hospitals have a limited number of resources. Covid-19 made this fact particularly relevant as hospitals all around the world had to make difficult decisions about how they could make the most of their equipment and staff during a time of unusually high need.

These decisions can be made easier using data algorithms. Using data, hospital managers can benefit from an enhanced understanding of where the most need is.

This could mean diverting more staff to a certain floor of a hospital wing. For example, a program that analyzes Covid metrics may detect the early signs of a spike. The hospital manager will then know that they need more staff on the respiratory wing.

Data can also be used for assessing what patients even require physicians. Using patient portals and calibrated algorithms, a hospital can view patient complaints by order of their urgency. Some may need to come in to be seen directly, while others may be able to have their needs met through a telehealth module.

Not only does this save the hospital on resources, but it also costs less money, allowing patients to get the care they need at a potentially more affordable price.

Faster Diagnosing

Data implementation can also help doctors make quicker diagnoses. Using algorithms, they can take a patient’s health history, plug in their symptoms, and receive a quick list of probable diagnoses. In many cases, a quick turnaround time can be the difference between a patient getting better, or getting worse.

In this scenario, the doctor still uses their own knowledge, but instead of sifting through dozens of possible scenarios, they are left with a manageable handful of possibilities.

Blockchain

Naturally, a patient’s health history is very personal, private information. As healthcare drifts closer and closer towards broad data usage, security becomes a big issue. After all, if companies like Marriot can’t keep their customer data safe, what hope does a small rural hospital have?

Blockchain makes data implementation safer. It provides encryption that simultaneously makes data more secure, and easier to share amongst qualified professionals.

This technology makes it very easy for patients to have access to important health records even when they are far from home. If a person finds themselves hospitalized out of state, or even in another country, they can trust that their records are being shared securely thanks to blockchain technology.

Administrative Advantages

Data implementation also has significant administrative advantages. While these benefits may not be experienced by the patient directly, they do impact their ultimate quality of care. Administratively, hospitals can use data to make more informed decisions about upkeep, patient scheduling, supply management, and all manner of other features that make a hospital tick and hum.

Though less palpable, these benefits can have a keen impact on the patient experience. If you’ve ever been in a waiting room where ten people seem to have the same appointment time, you understand the truth of this.

Community Outreach

Health data can also be an important aspect of community outreach. For example, if data shows that a certain segment of the population is unusually averse to getting the flu vaccine, data can help healthcare professionals identify what sort of people fall into this category, and then help them make an advertising campaign that is tailored towards that section of the community.

Similarly, healthcare professionals can also use community data to anticipate things like an isolated Covid outbreak. Since March of 2020, we have seen that Covid may spike in certain parts of the country, even when the numbers are very mild overall.

Data can anticipate and isolate these projected spikes to make sure that the community that is to be impacted by them is aware of the situation ahead of time.

Accurate Patient Data is Crucial for Positive Patient Outcomes

Since there’s no standardized and effective patient identifier in place, patient misidentification is rampant in the US – leading to duplicate medical records, identity theft cases, denied claims, and patient safety issues. None of the above points will be effective until patient data integrity is ensured – RightPatient helps with the latter.

Several hospitals are using RightPatient – a touchless biometric patient identification platform – to help them ensure that accurate medical records are being selected. It utilizes patients’ photos to identify medical records accurately – making it a safe, seamless, and easy patient identification process for everyone involved. RightPatient prevents duplicates, prevents identity theft cases, and improves patient outcomes by identifying EHRs accurately across the care continuum.

Dealing With Huge Medical Practice Running Costs: How To Bring Them Down

March 11, 2022/2198 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

There’s no getting around it – the cost of running a medical practice is high. However, that doesn’t mean you have to accept high bills without hesitation. High running costs slow down your practice and make it difficult to provide quality care to your patients. You’ll be more stressed, and your patients will ultimately be the ones who are affected. Here are some helpful tips to bring down your medical practice’s running costs.

Hire Virtual Assistants Instead of Full-Time Employees

One way to reduce your running costs is to hire a virtual medical scribe instead of a full-time administration assistant. Virtual assistants work remotely, usually from their home country. They’re experts in a particular area and can help you with various tasks, such as billing, transcription, and marketing.

Hiring a virtual assistant is a great way to reduce your running costs because you only pay for their work hours. You don’t have to worry about paying for benefits, such as health insurance and retirement pensions. A virtual assistant is qualified and experienced in the area you need help with.

Use Technology To Reduce Paperwork

Another way to reduce your running costs is to use technology to reduce the amount of paperwork you produce. For example, you can use electronic health records (EHRs) to store patient information. Doing so reduces the amount of paper you need to print out and file.

You can also use online tools to bill patients and manage appointments -most of them will save you both time and money. They’re also more efficient than traditional methods, which means you can see more patients in a day. Technology also allows you to communicate with patients and other healthcare professionals electronically, creating convenience and saving time.

Reduce Costs That Don’t Contribute to Better Healthcare

Analyze your costs and identify which ones are contributing to better healthcare for your patients, and which ones are not. For example, you may want to reduce your advertising budget, or the amount you spend on office supplies. You can also reduce the amount you spend on rent or lease a smaller office. However, make sure the office you lease is still big enough to accommodate your needs.

Other than this, check whether you’re paying multiple subscriptions for software or services you don’t use. You can also save money by negotiating lower prices for supplies.

Reduce Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy can be a major contributor to high running costs. It creates inefficiencies and wastes valuable time and money. Reduce bureaucracy by streamlining your processes and eliminating unnecessary steps. You can also make sure all your employees are trained the same and follow the same procedures.

Involve the Staff in Reducing Costs

Your staff is a valuable resource when it comes to reducing costs. Ask them for ideas on how to reduce expenses. You may be surprised at the amount of money your staff can save you. They may also have suggestions on how to improve your practice’s efficiency. Together, you can develop ways to reduce your running costs without compromising the quality of care you provide.

Adopt Industry Best Practices

It’s always a good idea to learn from colleagues in other industries. Many of them have already found ways to reduce their running costs. Consider their best practices and see how you can apply them to your medical practice. Some of the things that can help reduce costs are:

Efficient use of space – can you use less space and still provide the same level of care?
Error-free processes – can you eliminate or reduce the number of mistakes made?
Staff training and development – is there a way to improve staff efficiency or train new skills?

Reduce Waste

Waste is a major contributor to high running costs. Reduce waste by eliminating unnecessary steps in your processes, recycling, composting, and using energy-efficient equipment.

Ensure Accurate Patient Identification

Inaccurately identifying patients has several disadvantages – it creates duplicate medical records, overlays, patient mix-ups, denied claims, and more – all of which can become significant losses to any medical practice. This occurs because patients are misidentified when they have common names or characteristics – leading to the patient being treated using an entirely different EHR! The consequences of patient misidentification are catastrophic as the patient’s life is on the line – they might get treated for a condition they don’t have!

Fortunately, a touchless biometric patient identification platform like RightPatient helps associate EHRs with the appropriate patients accurately. Patients registered with the platform only need to look at the camera – RightPatient does the rest, making it one of the most ideal ways to tackle mix-ups.

Continually Analyze the Running Costs To Remain Profitable

Implementing some or all of these tips reduces your medical practice’s running costs. This will allow you to provide better care for your patients while still staying within your budget. Remember to continually analyze your costs and look for new ways to reduce them. Doing so ensures your practice remains profitable and sustainable in the long run.

The Modern Viability of Telehealth

February 28, 2022/2444 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

The healthcare industry has experienced major changes and innovations in the last decade. One of its most prevalent shifts has been the increasing viability of telehealth offerings. Statistics across a range of metrics have shown strong growth and increased adoption of telehealth over the past 10-12 years.

Beginning in March of 2020 when the advent of COVID-19 threw the healthcare industry (and the entire world) into chaos, telehealth visits exploded. Experts expect that a post-COVID-pandemic world will include a much more expanded and regular adoption of telehealth as an effective alternative to in-person healthcare provision. Though much remains to be learned and understood about the long-term ramifications of telehealth practice, its benefits and possibilities look very promising and could also alleviate much of the strain and burden the healthcare industry has sustained in the last 1-2 years.

Reasons Telehealth Looks More Promising than Ever Before

Though telehealth has technically been possible for a longer amount of time than it has been more readily adopted on a wide scale, various limitations had previously rendered it impractical for widespread use. However, several large shifts that have occurred within the last 5-10 years have made it a much more viable option and have set the stage for telehealth to prove a sustainable and widely accessible healthcare provision option.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

The prevalence of electronic health records and other digital means of storing and sharing information have made it much easier for multiple healthcare providers to access a patient’s data and health history to provide care. In the past, records would have largely been stored in hard copies, and the process of getting that information to a new health provider so that they could administer care was much more manual. If this was still the case, it would render telehealth provision much more arduous.

Now that EHRs can be transferred and stored digitally, distance is moot, and being in person to transfer health information or histories is unnecessary. Conducting healthcare provision via online telehealth platforms can sometimes make digital data representations of that care more convenient and arguably contribute to better record-keeping and data analytics that can serve that patient in the future.

Moreover, in the case of EHRs, healthcare providers must ensure that they are feeding accurate data into the medical records. Problems such as duplicate medical records and overlays cause patient mix-ups, denied claims, patient safety issues, poor patient data, and worse – all of which can be prevented with positive patient identification. Fortunately, touchless biometric patient identification platforms like RightPatient ensure that the appropriate medical record is presented each time the patient comes in and verifies their identity. RightPatient improves patient data integrity, enhances patient safety, and prevents patient misidentification at any point in the care continuum.

The ubiquity of Internet Connectivity

Because video conferencing is still a data-heavy task that requires a strong internet connection, even as recently as 5-10 years ago telehealth would have been impractical or even impossible for all but those who paid premium prices for ample internet bandwidth.

However, as connectivity technology and availability have increased, telehealth has become accessible for a large percentage of the world’s population. As more and more people enjoy strong regular internet access in their homes and workplaces, telehealth offerings become a convenient and easy healthcare option.

Growing Acceptance of Telehealth in Policy and Insurance Coverage

Another valuable contributor to telehealth’s increasing adoption rates, especially in the face of COVID-19, healthcare providers and insurance companies scrambled to provide alternatives to in-person healthcare out of necessity. Factors like persons with high-risk health conditions and hospitals overrun with COVID patients meant that thousands of individuals had no choice but to look for alternatives to traditional health visits.

Even as COVID-19 slows and the healthcare landscape will likely shift away from its resulting emergency measures over the coming year or more, telehealth has proven beneficial for several reasons and will very likely remain and even increase in use over the coming years.

Increase in Technologies

With an increase in technology, telehealth can propel into the future with various ways to allow for remote healthcare. Even now some diagnostic tests and involved types of medicinal and care administration can be performed remotely, either via mail-in arrangements or through virtual means. The development of new technologies including Virtual and Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continually offer medical professionals more means of conducting healthcare provision remotely via telehealth platforms.

The Many Benefits of Telehealth

It is because of the many benefits telehealth promises that huge energy and resources are being invested in making it even more available and robust. Though this is not an exhaustive list, the reasons below are just a few of the ways telehealth can provide distinct advantages to the healthcare system:

Its efficiency allows more visits to fit into a span of time. It can often save both patients and sometimes healthcare providers the time, resources, and energy required to travel to healthcare provision locations. Telehealth can sometimes make moving between different healthcare locations unnecessary for medical professionals. And it cuts down on the need for multiple healthcare staff to conduct a single visit, lessening the total work required to provide medical appointments.

Telehealth can increase access to healthcare for a number of individuals. For some demographics including the elderly or those with social anxiety or that live in remote areas, traveling to a healthcare facility is impractical or even impossible. Telehealth makes healthcare provision available from the comfort or security of one’s own home. For others, their life or work schedule makes it difficult to attend in-person appointments.

Additionally, it can reduce strain on hospitals and overburdened healthcare providers. Telehealth can also reduce traffic through in-person health locations, lessening overall contamination and keeping them more insulated for patients in more severe or critical conditions.

Finally, telehealth provision can often create an improved patient experience. Many patients who experience telehealth appointments prefer them to in-person visits. Telehealth can reduce external factors and experiences that can be unfavorable to some patients and provide an alternative that suits some individuals much more favorably.

Because of the many benefits they provide, telehealth offerings will likely become even more prevalent and fully featured in the future. Though they will never fully replace in-person health provision, telehealth can provide a strategic and cost-effective alternative that can expand healthcare provision’s reach and help it cater to more people effectively.

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

February 14, 2022/4474 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG, Data Integrity, Duplicate Medical Records, EHR, healthcare, Infection Control, Medical Record Mix-ups, Patient Identification, Patient Outcomes, Patient Safety /by Matt Gibson

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.

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.

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.

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?

Patient Safety Improvement in Hospitals with 5 Strategies

November 11, 2021/5435 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG, Data Integrity, Duplicate Medical Records, EHR, healthcare, Medical Record Mix-ups, Patient Data, Patient Errors, Patient Identification, Patient Outcomes, Patient Safety /by Matt Gibson

Patient safety is one of the key components that is crucial for preventing patient harm, ensuring proper healthcare outcomes, and reducing redundant costs for healthcare providers. Without it, adverse events lead to patients receiving the wrong care, and according to WHO, one in ten patients is harmed while receiving healthcare services. Fortunately, half of these adverse events are preventable – let’s take a look at some patient safety improvement strategies that can help with that.

5 strategies for patient safety improvement

Nurture a patient safety-focused culture

One of the best patient safety improvement strategies is to foster a culture that focuses heavily on improving patient care. All employees, from the janitors to the decision-makers, must be a part of the culture and focus on patient safety and quality healthcare more than anything else. In fact, healthcare providers that aren’t fostering such patient-centered cultures are struggling with adverse events, medication errors, and worse. For instance, physicians must focus on patients themselves rather than their medical records and involve them in the decision-making process. This way, they can get better insights into the patient’s ailments to help them identify the problems in a more reliable manner.

Identify and work on mistakes

Rather than only acknowledging the mistakes that lead to patient safety incidents, working towards preventing future incidents is a much more sensible strategy. What’s even better is identifying the issues before they happen and preventing them. For instance, there are different solutions available that can help identify potential issues and address them effectively. In the case of mistakes that already took place, identifying why they occurred and coming up with strategies that can prevent future occurrences is the tried and tested solution.

Reduce chances for human error

While technology is evolving rapidly, most healthcare providers, unfortunately, are still stuck with ancient processes and manual methods. This leaves room for human error, something that can jeopardize patient safety in hospitals significantly. For instance, if paper is used for recording medicine administration, handwriting or common names can lead to mix-ups, leading to an adverse impact on healthcare outcomes. On the other hand, if digital solutions are used, then not only will it speed up the process, but it will also make it more reliable and safe (especially if patient photos are used for identification). This is just a simple example, but reducing chances for human error ensures patient safety improvement across the care continuum.

Ensure a clean environment and enforce hygiene rules

While many might have forgotten that we’re still going through a pandemic, hospitals and health systems must ensure that they are providing a safe environment for everyone involved. Not only must hospitals ensure that they keep their facilities clean, but they also need to ensure that everyone in the facilities is complying with safety rules such as wearing masks and maintaining distance. All of this leads towards reducing HAIs (hospital-acquired infections), improving patient safety in the process.

Ensure accurate patient identification

One of the topmost patient safety goals for many years has been improving the accuracy of patient identification, and according to the Joint Commission, it will once again be the number 1 goal for 2022. This just shows how important accurate patent identification is for patient safety improvement.

The problem is that patient misidentification leads to a number of issues – duplicate medical records, patient record mix-ups, wrong treatment, and even medical identity theft. All of these lead to adverse healthcare outcomes, hospital readmissions, and even deaths.

Fortunately, accurate patient identification IS possible – hospitals that have been using RightPatient are protecting millions of patient records and improving patient safety.

RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification platform that essentially locks medical records during the registration process with patient photos. Registered patients only need to look at the camera when they revisit hospitals – RightPatient compares the photos and provides the accurate medical records for use, preventing duplicates, overlays, and medical errors. Moreover, it also helps prevent HAIs as it’s entirely touchless – improving patient safety on two fronts.

How are YOU improving patient safety at your hospital(s)?

Why is Patient Safety Important and How Can RightPatient Help?

November 9, 2021/5396 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG, Data Integrity, healthcare, HIM, Medical Record Mix-ups, Patient Data, Patient Errors, Patient Identification, Patient Outcomes, Patient Safety /by Matt Gibson

Ensuring and improving patient safety has always been important in the U.S. healthcare system. However, as we’re living in a pandemic, it is more important than ever now. As many hospitals have reopened, and others are planning to do so, most of them are concerned about keeping incoming patients safe and preventing any new COVID-19 outbreaks. Patient safety can be ensured with a number of strategies, including improving accurate patient identification, ensuring patient data integrity, and ensuring infection control – more on this later. That being said, let’s take a look at why is patient safety important now more than ever, what are the benefits, and how hospitals and health systems can improve patient safety with RightPatient – creating a safe environment for patients and caregivers.

COVID-19 has changed the landscape

Most people would agree that COVID-19 has changed everything. Not only has it affected our daily lives, but it has changed the way we work, the way we socialize, and the way we receive healthcare. To examine how COVID-19 has changed everything for hospitals, let’s take a look at a simple example.

Patient safety in hospitals and healthcare systems can be ensured in several ways – one of which is ensuring proper infection control. In the pre-pandemic period, only healthcare providers were concerned about infection control issues – it wasn’t a concern for the majority of patients. However, the pandemic has taught everyone a lot – social distancing, wearing PPE, sanitizing frequently, and so on. Quite naturally, all patients are concerned about infection control in hospitals now.

Earlier, when coming to hospitals, patients weren’t much concerned about catching viruses. Now, patients need to think twice before coming to hospitals and most of them typically come with as much protection as possible. Their concerns are quite valid too – what if a COVID-19 positive patient was in the vicinity, or what if the patient touched a surface?

That was just a simple example, but it provides a version of an answer as to why is patient safety important, especially now. Hospitals and health systems have the challenging task of keeping patients safe while ensuring them that they’re taking the most stringent measures to provide a safe environment for everyone in the facility. Otherwise, patient safety incidents could lead to patient harm, disability, and even deaths!

That being said, let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits of ensuring patient safety within healthcare facilities.

The benefits that show why is patient safety important

It prevents patient harm

Quite naturally, ensuring patient safety helps improve patient outcomes – they are simply getting the appropriate treatment plan that fits their ailments. Many cases have occurred where the patient wrongly receives the treatment that’s meant for someone else – leading to hospital readmissions, adverse effects, and worse. Improving patient safety ensures that high-quality care is provided to all the patients every time they interact with the healthcare provider.

It prevents medication administration errors

A huge concern of patient safety advocates is patients getting the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage – the results can be catastrophic! Using medication management protocols and accurate patient identification whenever necessary, nurses and therapists can easily confirm what dosage and which medications are required by the patients and at what times – improving patient safety.

It prevents infection control issues

As mentioned above, one of the patient safety concerns is infection control. Having a strict hygiene policy isn’t enough anymore – hospitals need to screen their patients strictly whenever one comes in to see whether they’re showing symptoms of COVID-19. However, doing it properly not only prevents the spread of the notorious virus but also other lesser-known infections within the healthcare facility. Otherwise, the spread will lead to other patients becoming sicker in the process.

It reduces costs

Preventing patient safety incidents saves numerous costs – costs that arise from patient harm, litigation costs, denied claims, patient misidentification, medication administration errors, and more. All of this, when summed up, becomes a large amount of money for any given hospital or health system, and given the pandemic’s pressure on healthcare providers, they need to reduce costs as much as possible.

Fortunately, RightPatient knows why is patient safety important, and it helps to improve it in several ways.

RightPatient boosts patient safety efforts

RightPatient is a touchless biometric patient identification platform that’s already deployed at several hospitals and health systems and is protecting millions of patient records – improving patient safety in the process.

For registration, patients only need to look at the camera when they come in for in-person hospital visits, making it a touchless, hygienic, and safe experience – preventing infection control concerns and improving safety.

Remote patients receive a link via an SMS to provide their photos after they schedule appointments. New patients need to provide a photo of their driver’s license along with a selfie for registration. RightPatient runs a search to see if the photos match and provides credentials to the new remote patients.

RightPatient not only ensures a contactless and hygienic experience, but it also ensures that the correct information is fed to the appropriate EHR – preventing medication errors, mix-ups, or duplicates. It even prevents medical identity theft as fraudsters will be identified once they try to go through the verification process.

RightPatient knows why patient safety is important, which is why it helps to improve it on several fronts. How are YOU ensuring patient safety at your healthcare facility?

RightPatient Partners with Harris Healthcare to Secure and Maintain EMPI Data Integrity

November 8, 2021/5091 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG, Data Integrity, Duplicate Medical Records, EHR, healthcare, HIM, Partnerships, Patient Data, Patient Identification /by Michael Trader

Very recently, RightPatient and Harris Healthcare’s DIS (Data Integrity Solutions) Business Unit have announced a strategic partnership to tackle patient data integrity issues by ensuring accurate patient identification.

Harris DIS includes QuadraMed, which focuses on EMPI management and data cleanups, and Just Associates, focused on helping hospitals and health systems achieve and maintain a highly accurate and quality MPI. QuadraMed provides end-to-end patient identity management to prevent duplicate medical records and dirty patient data to improve patient data integrity. From data analysis to cleanups, Just Associates performs the critical tasks necessary for a pristine MPI. Its state-of-the-art suite of identity management solutions and services includes continuous duplicate detection (IDSentry™), ongoing MPI management (IDManage™), and customized MPI clean-up services (IDResolve™).

By using the RightPatient Integrity Platform with Harris DIS’ existing solutions, patient identity management will be much more secure, accurate, and efficient. The collaboration provides important protections against front-end contamination of the MPI and EMPI and helps eliminate patient misidentification and safety issues created by “dirty” patient identification data.

The problem of patient misidentification and dirty patient data

Several factors cause front-end contamination and dirty patient data within an MPI or EMPI, such as frequent flyers, medical identity theft, and duplicate medical records. There may even be duplicate records that have very limited or contrasting information.

RightPatient Integrity Platform incorporates patient photos into the Quadramed SmartID platform, helping identify and resolve these challenging duplicate records that were created from cases of alias or stolen identities. This helps reduce new duplicate and overlaid medical records right from the start, while Just Associates focuses on creating and maintaining a pristine MPI/EMPI environment and supporting rapid and accurate patient identification.

RightPatient advances Harris DIS’ ability to address key health information issues by reducing the volume of potential duplicate medical records, preventing patient misidentification, enhancing patient safety, and ensuring patient data integrity across the care continuum. Doing so is more important than ever as remote patient registrations have increased due to COVID-19.

RightPatient and Harris DIS’ partnership aims to improve the overall efficacy of medical data clean-ups and ongoing data integrity efforts with RightPatient’s robust de-duplication engine. It secures patient information and minimizes the ongoing cost of maintaining quality patient data.

How RightPatient and Harris DIS improve patient identity management

Typically, an EMPI contains patient information from a health system’s several facilities such as labs, hospitals, physician practices, and pharmacies. Front-end contamination is common if positive patient identification isn’t ensured during the registration process. This later leads to dirty patient data, duplicates, overlays, patient safety incidents, write-offs, and more.

RightPatient and Harris DIS can address and solve patient misidentification right off the bat using patient photos.

During the registration process, hospitals collect the patient information along with their photos. The MPI data is then sent to QuadraMed for analysis and cleaning, after which RightPatient Integrity Platform receives a copy of the patient photos along with the corresponding MRNs (medical record numbers). Using RightPatient’s powerful photo-matching engine, the patient photos are deduplicated to bolster overall system analytics.

RightPatient Integrity Platform with Harris DIS can be used for:

Existing EMPI data cleanup projects
Identifying duplicates during the registration process
Hospitals that are starting to capture patient photos

The impact of effective patient identity management

RightPatient’s leading touchless patient identification platform is being utilized by numerous healthcare providers to identify their patients safely, reliably, and effectively.

During the registration process at hospitals and healthcare facilities, patients just look at the camera and the platform takes a photo and attaches it to the medical record. During remote registrations, patients receive an SMS after which they provide a selfie and a photo of their driver’s license. The platform then searches for a match between the two photos and assigns biometric credentials to new patients.

The same expertise comes with the RightPatient Integrity Platform which can be seamlessly integrated with any EHR, including QuadraMed’s SmartID Platform. This enables healthcare providers to:

Prevent duplicate and overlaid medical records during registration
Ensure remote patient photo capture and authentication
Bolster de-duplication and EMPI data cleanup efforts
Ensure clean patient data across the care continuum
Improve patient safety and prevent medical errors
Reduce write-offs and denied claims
Prevent cases of identity theft and “frequent flyers”

Another Patient Mix-Up Leads to the Wrong Surgery – Are These Preventable?

October 13, 2021/5521 views / 1 Comment/in BLOG, healthcare, Medical Record Mix-ups, Patient Data, Patient Identification, Patient Outcomes, Patient Safety /by Matt Gibson

We’ve seen and already covered many patient misidentification stories. These range from a mistaken patient identity that almost led to huge financial losses, wrong patient surgery cases that caused kidney transplant mix-ups, to a patient identification error that caused the wrong patient to be taken off of life support. Clearly, patient misidentification can cause serious to life-changing consequences for anyone involved. Unfortunately, today’s article is no different – the patient involved underwent a life-altering surgery only to find out that it was a case of a patient mix-up.

That being said, let’s take a closer look at what exactly occurred, how patient mix-up cases can lead to drastic consequences, and how they demonstrate the importance of accurate patient identification.

A patient mix-up led to misdiagnosis and laparoscopic prostatectomy

There’s probably nothing worse than being told by your physician that you have a deadly disease, right? What about being told you actually don’t have the disease AFTER the life-changing surgery?

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened with Eric Spang, 48, a man who lived happily with his family in Pennsylvania before he was misdiagnosed with prostate cancer. After learning the truth, Mr. Spang, quite naturally, became depressed and devastated both physically and emotionally.

Everything was going quite normally in Mr. Spang’s life until he received the results from a routine prostate screening. His physician informed him that he, unfortunately, had a common indicator of prostate cancer – elevated PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels. The later course of action was to get a biopsy to see if it indeed was cancerous or not – this is where the patient mix-up occurred and changed everything for both the patients and their families.

Mr. Spang got the biopsy result back – it was positive. The physicians recommended a laparoscopic prostatectomy – his entire prostate gland would be removed. After discussing it with his wife, Mr. Spang chose to go for the surgery, hoping that it would save his life and put an end to this nightmare.

The bad news didn’t end here for the family, unfortunately. After the surgery, Mr. Spang and his wife found out that he didn’t have prostate cancer – the biopsy result belonged to an entirely different patient! While under different circumstances this might have been good news, it wasn’t for Mr. Spang – the irreparable damage had been done. Quite understandably, Mr. Spang was devastated.

Mr. Spang’s attorney, Aaron Friedwald, has filed a malpractice suit against Tower Health as well as the urology group. One of the reasons for this is because Mr. Spang wanted a second biopsy done to see if the results were consistent or not. However, his urologist did not recommend it, whereas his physician said that his prostate looked good as other tests showed no worrying issues. Getting a second biopsy might have cost a bit more, but it would’ve saved Mr. Spang from the entirely unnecessary surgery and devastation.

Patient mix-ups are a huge cause for concern

Well, this misdiagnosis can be traced back to patient mix-ups – something caused by patient misidentification. Moreover, this is just one case, and as we mentioned in the beginning, we’ve covered cases like this in the past. However, these are the ones that are reported – what about those that go unnoticed and undetected? Imagine getting a kidney removed and finding out that it was entirely unnecessary or getting the kidney that was meant for another patient!

All of these mix-ups have drastic consequences for patients, their families, as well as healthcare providers. Patients’ and their family’s lives are irreversibly changed and they can file a malpractice suit against the healthcare providers and other parties involved. Not only do such cases attract unwanted attention to the hospitals but it also increases litigation costs, loss of goodwill, and might even cause patients to switch to other healthcare providers.

However, these consequences are entirely avoidable with positive patient identification across the care continuum, and that’s what RightPatient does.

RightPatient prevents mix-ups across the care continuum

Leading healthcare providers such as Terrebonne General Medical Center, University Health Care System, and Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital are using RightPatient to identify patients accurately, prevent mix-ups, and protect patient records.

Patients are quite receptive to the touchless biometric patient identification platform. During hospital visits, RightPatient takes a photo of the patient and attaches it to the patient’s EHR after running a search to see if it already exists in any other EHR, preventing duplicates. Afterward, these patients only need to look at the camera – RightPatient runs a search and upon finding a match, provides the accurate medical record.

For remote patients, the patients are sent an SMS with a link to provide a selfie and a photo of their driver’s license or similar information – RightPatient compares the photos for a match and remotely authenticates patient identities.

Doing so every time the patient visits, in-person or otherwise, ensures that the accurate information is being fed to the appropriate EHR – preventing transplant mix-ups, patient safety incidents, and even medical identity theft.

How are YOU preventing such disastrous cases at your healthcare facility?

Securing Healthcare Data Must Be a Priority as COVID Cases Postpone In-Person Visits

September 27, 2021/6786 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG, COVID-19, Data Integrity, EHR, healthcare, Medical Identity Theft, Patient Data, Patient Identification, Patient Outcomes, Patient Safety, Telehealth /by Matt Gibson

Unfortunately, the pandemic rages on. COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are increasing and the number this year has already surpassed last year’s figures, according to John Hopkins University. It’s sad to say that the numbers this year will increase further, with new variants, debates regarding masks and social distancing, and individuals who have not been unvaccinated. Healthcare providers are having to return to stricter protocols to try to reduce the number of cases, and many are canceling visits, postponing nonemergency procedures, running out of capacity, and are, once again, opting for virtual healthcare. That being said, let’s take a closer look at the situation, what some hospitals are going through, and why securing healthcare data is crucial during both virtual and in-person visits.

Idaho is facing a huge challenge due to COVID cases

This isn’t a surprise – many hospitals in different states are facing the same scenario due to COVID-19 spikes. For instance, health systems like Saint Alphonsus and St. Luke’s in Idaho have already paused non-emergency procedures.

The reason is quite simple – they are running at full capacity, seeing far more COVID-19 hospitalizations, and are being forced to reallocate resources to serve COVID-19 patients. In fact, COVID-19 daily hospitalization rates have gone up 35%, and it looks like more hospitals and health systems will have to follow the same rules.

The state has already entered a “Crisis Standards of Care” which was enacted as there’s a shortage of healthcare staff as well as beds, the latter because of a surge in COVID-19 patients.

Experts are even predicting up to 30,000 COVID-19 cases per week within the state, starting mid-September!

Within all the chaos, securing healthcare data to ensure accurate patient identification and sending reports to accurate personnel is a must.

Other states are also witnessing similar COVID-19 surges, such as Georgia and parts of California, leading to capacity constraints, postponed non-emergency procedures, and stricter visitation guidelines.

Telehealth might be the answer, as long as it protects healthcare data

Most hospitals will opt for offering virtual care again – it has already shown its capabilities in treating non-critical patients without risking anyone getting infected with COVID-19.

While telehealth has a huge number of supporters now, experts worry about a number of issues. One of the biggest concerns is that, just like in-person visits, telehealth might result in medical identity theft cases.

Securing healthcare data during both in-person visits as well as virtual ones, thus, becomes a huge concern. Fortunately, RightPatient is more than up for the challenge.

Securing healthcare data is possible with RightPatient

RightPatient is the leading touchless patient ID platform and several healthcare providers trust it to protect millions of patient records.

By ensuring proper patient identification, RightPatient ensures that the EHR is used for the appropriate patient – preventing mix-ups, duplicates, and medical identity theft.

For in-person visits, the patient just needs to look at the camera for registration. RightPatient takes a photo and attaches it to the patient’s EHR – these can’t be accessed by fraudsters. For instance, if a fraudster tries to access services, RightPatient will identify that the person’s face doesn’t match with the saved photo – red-flagging the individual and preventing medical identity theft in real-time.

For telehealth sessions, after patients schedule appointments, they will receive an SMS. They will need to provide a selfie along with the photo of their driver’s license – RightPatient will automatically compare the photos, and upon matching, create biometric credentials for the new patients and validate registered ones. In this case as well, if the platform identifies discrepancies, it will red flag the individual, preventing them from tampering with the EHRs, securing healthcare data, and preventing medical identity theft in the process.

RightPatient is the future of patient identification

Whether it’s online visits or in-person visits, hospitals and health systems must protect patient data, improve patient safety, and prevent identity theft. While several caregivers such as Terrebonne General Medical Center, Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, and University Health Care System are already using RightPatient to protect their patients, many caregivers are still using ancient methods to identify patients – putting them at risk.

How are YOU protecting patient records and ensuring positive patient identification at your healthcare facility?

Reduce Neck Pain At Work In 6 Steps

September 23, 2021/2862 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

A typical desk job has never done your neck good. Many Australians often experience neck pain or stiff neck due to the sedentary position it requires. You probably feel the strain on your neck after a few hours of continuous work while sitting. Answering the phone by cradling it between your shoulder and ear while typing on the keyboards also provides discomfort somehow.

Your neck conditions might worsen gradually, as they become sore all the time if you fail to take the necessary steps for prevention. With as little effort as stretching, they can do wonders to make you feel more relaxed and your neck at ease. It’s best not to wait until your neck develops burning pains.

Consider doing the steps below so you can reduce neck pain at work:

Maintain A Good Posture

Having a good posture while working in an office in Queensland and other areas goes a long way for you to keep your neck and spine healthy. The proper position to follow is to sit at your desk, ensuring that your feet touch the floor while your back is against the chair. Place your head in a neutral position, and don’t slouch while working on your desk.

It’s crucial that you don’t round your lower back. One way to avoid slouching is to adjust your chair’s height if you feel it’s too high or low to your liking. This will also enable your thighs to slide down a bit more and position you more comfortably. By remaining in this position, you keep your weight evenly distributed over your lower hips.

Visit Your Physiotherapist

In many cases, physiotherapy is used to treat neck pain conditions that have gone from bad to worse. Although this might not be the case for most office workers, fortunately, it’s still best to take a proactive approach to ensure your overall wellbeing. Visiting a Brisbane physiotherapist will be vital in spotting the signs of work-related and occupational diseases. This way, you can treat them earlier than having a more serious neck pain condition.

An in-depth understanding of working habits is common among professional physiotherapists. They know the nuts and bolts of office working postures, tendencies, symptoms, and possible pain points. In addition, they can identify the factors contributing to these work-related conditions.

Therefore, it’s best to depend on them so they can prescribe strategies and early treatments for your increasing neck pain at work. With digital health being revolutionized, you can even consult through telehealth via protected communication channels managed by the concerned health professional.

Stretch And Do A Self-Massage

While sitting at a desk, range-of-motion stretches can be done quite easily. You can do so even while working. All you have to do is move your head forward, back, and sideways. These are an excellent way to stretch the muscles, tendons, and soft tissues. However, ensure that the stretches don’t produce more pain and strain to your neck.

Another effective practice you can do is massage. Use your hand and fingers to massage the sore spots of your neck deliberately. You may use massage tools and liniments to make them feel calm and relaxed.

Position Your Computer Screen And Keyboard Properly

The focal point of the screen should be at nose height when you place the computer monitor in front of you. This should be the proper positioning of your working equipment so you can maintain a good posture. Angling your head downward when watching a monitor that is too low will cause you to put more stress on your neck. Hence, elevate it by using some computer accessories.

As for the keyboard, it’s best that your elbows and hands can quickly type on them with comfort. The keyboard should be high enough that you won’t have to slouch your shoulders down. Also, place the mouse beside the keyboard and ensure that it’s accessible and comfortable to hold and navigate. It’s crucial to invest in accessories that’ll support your gadgets’ positioning to have a good office and desk set up.

Go For Ergonomic Office Furniture

Sitting straight up at a 90-degree angle can sometimes make your body too stiff and sore. This isn’t a comfortable position. It’s best to recline your posture to 20 to 30 degrees more. Find an ergonomic chair that you can easily adjust to recline the backside as well as adjust the height.

Also, always keep your feet reaching the ground so you’ll have the correct posture. Opt for a chair with a removable armrest just in case you want to let your shoulders and hands down sometimes.

Set An Alarm To Walk Around The Office

Ultimately, it’s best to walk around your office to improve your blood circulation, muscles stretch, and bones come into use. By moving around, you can avoid having neck strain and pain. This is incredibly best if you can feel numbness or tightness developing along your body. The thighs, hips, back, spine, and neck usually are the spots that get tight with less movement.

Getting up and walking around is believed to be good for your body and your blood circulation, so it’s best to do it often. Simply set a reminder alarm that’ll go off at a schedule so you can avoid neck and body pain.

Conclusion

While neck pain isn’t something between life and death, it’s still essential to prevent and treat them early on before they become chronic and affect your daily life. With the pointers mentioned above, you can eliminate neck pain and continue working productively in the office. Your health should be prioritized, so visit a physiotherapist early on if you want to strategize more neck exercises, stretches, and improve your body posture.