Fingerprint biometrics help secure medical data at Arizona hospitals

Published 30 August 2011

As more healthcare networks begin storing patient records electronically, they have become increasingly concerned with security and many are turning to biometrics; a healthcare provider in Southern Arizona recently introduced fingerprint biometrics at its facilities to help secure patient records and increase efficiency

As more healthcare networks begin storing patient records electronically, they have become increasingly concerned with security and many are turning to biometrics.

For instance a healthcare provider in Southern Arizona recently introduced fingerprint biometrics at its facilities to help secure patient records and increase efficiency.

Arizona’s Children’s Clinics for Rehabilitative Services installed DigitalPersona Pro’s data protection and access software as well as U.are.U fingerprint readers to prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing patient records. These new systems are helping to protect the clinic’s more than 11,700 patient records which have been stored digitally in its NextGen electronic health record system.

William Mayo, the information systems supervisor at Children’s Clinics for Rehabilitative Services, said the new fingerprint biometrics has not only improved security but also expedited patient care and minimized the need for IT personnel to help recover lost or forgotten passwords.

In our environment almost all our providers are part-time providers who are only here a couple times a month. We adopted the technology so that [they] would not have to remember another set of usernames and passwords,” Mayo said. “It also enabled us to simplify and speed up the login process. Before implementing biometric technology we were relying on using usernames and passwords to access clinic resources.”

Roughly 40 percent of the clinic’s staff consists of part-time contractors who only deal with patients a few times a month and as a result many forgot their passwords resulting in lengthy delays for providers and patients.

“Bringing up an EHR on an accelerated timeline that is mainly being used by part-time providers was a real challenge. Using the fingerprint readers has enabled our providers to quickly access our EHR, removing a potential stumbling block,” Mayo said.

Each patient room is now equipped with a computer where doctors can electronically access a patient’s data, and with the new USB fingerprint readers doctors can log in with a quick touch of their finger.

Fingerprint biometrics reduces the chances that patient records can be viewed by the wrong person by preventing the sharing of authentication credentials. In addition, it helps healthcare organizations be more efficient since they don’t have to deal with people losing or forgetting their fingers,” said Jim Fulton, the vice-president of marketing at DigitalPersona.