Allscripts Integrates Electronic Health Record with Patient Kiosk
Allscripts and Fujitsu, a provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace, has introduced the Allscripts Patient Kiosk, the next generation of patient kiosk technology for physician practices. Allscripts Patient Kiosk cost-effectively enhances how patients interact with healthcare providers. The integration of the Fujitsu PalmSecure biometric authentication solution improves the security and privacy of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other sensitive patient information.
Allscripts (booth #1303) and Fujitsu (booth #325) will demonstrate Allscripts Patient Kiosk during HIMSS09 Annual Conference & Exhibition, April 4-8 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
"Physician practices are always on the lookout for ways to lower costs while improving patient satisfaction, and the Allscripts Patient Kiosk is the answer," said James Hewitt, Chief Information Officer of Springfield Clinic, a 260-provider multi-specialty physician group with 24 locations in Springfield, Ill. and the surrounding 14 counties. "Patients love the kiosk because they are in control." Springfield, who co-developed the healthcare solution with Allscripts to work on the medical kiosk from Fujitsu, will be deploying 50 of the kiosks this quarter.
Allscripts Patient Kiosk also will be deployed this month at the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates (MFA) in Washington, DC, a 550-physician group made up of the faculty of the George Washington University School of Medicine. Stephen Badger, Chief Executive Officer of MFA, said "We're excited that the kiosk will offer our patients the ability to securely check in, using nothing more than their hand on the Fujitsu reader, pay their co-pay, update and correct any mistakes in their personal information and get an alert about an overdue colonoscopy—all within about two minutes. It's what our patients want and it saves our practice time and money."
Allscripts Patient Kiosk solves a common patient complaint—the seemingly endless stream of paperwork they must fill out every time they register for an appointment. Allscripts Patient Kiosk eliminates this frustration while helping physician practices reduce the costs and overhead associated with traditional patient check-in. The integration of the Fujitsu PalmSecure palm vein authentication solution maintains patient confidentiality, privacy and information security. Through the integration with Allscripts Electronic Health Records, Patient Kiosk helps patients take control of their own healthcare with a dashboard view of all their personal information, including a complete health maintenance plan.
Innovations such as Patient Kiosk with integrated Fujitsu PalmSecure technology are vital to ensuring that physician groups not only implement, but fully utilize Electronic Health Records, a key goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009. Allscripts Patient Kiosk delivers real-time updates to Practice Management databases for patient billing information, including the option to make co-payments using a credit card. The system also seamlessly updates the patient's Allscripts Electronic Health Record, taking a picture to verify their identity and documenting office visits, including procedures undergone by the patient at that time. While accessing the patient's medical record, reminders can be sent to the kiosk screen for future annual exams and other periodic checkups.
The Allscripts Patient Kiosk is available now through Allscripts, which provides physician practices a full-service kiosk package, from initial design through development, deployment and maintenance.
"Patients want to remove the pain of completing paper forms during every visit and physician practices want nothing more than to find better, faster, more effective ways to complete accurate patient registrations and collect co-pays. The Allscripts Patient Kiosk delivers," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "The kiosk is the latest example of Allscripts ability to partner with our clients and great companies like Fujitsu to quickly deliver highly innovative new products that transform and improve the delivery of healthcare in America."
The Fujitsu PalmSecure technology ensures patient privacy with a highly reliable identification system that scans the unique vein patterns in a person's hand. The solution uses a near infrared light to capture a patient's palm vein pattern, generating a unique biometric template that is matched against a database of enrolled users' palm-vein patterns. This advanced, vascular-pattern recognition technology provides a highly accurate type of authentication—The PalmSecure false acceptance ratio is just 0.00008 percent—in a form factor that is non-intrusive, easy to use and that generates extremely fast comparisons. The system ensures that only patients have access to their medical records and information, complying with strict HIPAA patient privacy guidelines.
"The integration of PalmSecure into the Allscripts Patient Kiosk is a step forward in helping to protect electronic health records, while speeding up check in processes that save physician clinics time and money," said Josh Napua, Vice President, Healthcare Solution Group, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. "We believe that Springfield Clinic and Medical Faculty Associates can be examples to the healthcare industry of how delivery of patient services can be more streamlined and secure, providing a better experience for administrators, nurses, doctors and most importantly, the patient."