In the future, there will be a change in patient identification in healthcare services. Recent findings state that the population of the universe is expanding. Hence, technology is the only way to solve this. Biometric identification is a simple and more accurate way of identifying a person using his unique fingerprints. This type of identification improves patient safety in a healthcare setup. It eliminates duplication of records in a hospital; it identifies a particular person at a time. Biometric services also prevent patient fraud and lower hospital system liability risks. Private hospitals have started using this type of identification for accuracy in the patient’s records. This service has been around for some time but in different settings, such as banks and sales platforms. Healthcare facilities are now looking forward to more efficient ways of identifying patients properly. In support of this identification, measures have been taken by the government and professional organizations. The lack of proper ways of patient identification has resulted in a lot of loss of financial records; this shows that unless proper identification is made, healthcare aims and goals will not be achieved (Mahler, 2011).
For biometric identification to be used, hospitals used insurance cards that had all patient details on them. The card could be used in many different places, including public offices and organizations. The possible effect of the card was fraudulent. To eliminate that, the invention of biometrics has improved safety in patients’ information made confidential, and it has enabled proper financial control in a hospital. Biometric services have introduced a clean environment for healthcare services. One does not need to check in on the patient’s booklist; within a second, a patient authenticates his identity with biometrics. Hospitals now have the capacity to integrate what is necessary for the identification of their patients and the biometric system suitable for them (Henneman, 2010).
Reference
Freund, T., Mahler, C., Erler, A., Gensichen, J., Ose, D., Szecsenyi, J., & Peters-Klimm, F. (2011). Identification of patients likely to benefit from care management programs. The American journal of managed care, 17(5), 345-352.
Henneman, E. A., Roche, J. P., Fisher, D. L., Cunningham, H., Reilly, C. A., Nathanson, B. H., & Henneman, P. L. (2010). Error identification and recovery by student nurses using human patient simulation: Opportunity to improve patient safety. Applied Nursing Research, 23(1), 11-21.
