7 Ways Hospitals Can Lower Costs While Improving Security

Security today is more critical than ever before in the healthcare industry. Hospitals are under legal and social pressure to give patients and staff top-notch security. While security has many ramifications, it also helps with cutting costs.

Here are seven ways security technology can specifically help hospitals increase their return on investment.

1. Protecting patient records with biometrics — The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (better known as HIPAA) forever changed the way hospitals interact with patients and their records, requiring hospitals to closely guard patient information and keep a record of who has access to it. One of the ways hospitals address this is to implement two-factor authentication. This can consist of a card and a pin or a biometric authentication such as a fingerprint. While chip-and-pin is still a popular mode of security, biometrics alleviates the possibility of passwords being shared and no cards are needed, drastically cutting cost.
2. Patient management systems — HIPAA also increases the paperwork load for both patients and administrators. Biometrics can be incorporated into a patient management system as well. By allowing patients to biometrically authenticate themselves, it helps automate patient management, considerably reducing administrative tasks and time. Faster processing can even help increase the flow of patients, allowing doctors to see more patients.
3. Protecting assets — There are many expensive and even dangerous tools or drugs in a hospital that need to be safeguarded from unauthorized personnel. Theft is one obvious concern. However, a bigger concern is assuming liability for the accidental exposure of visitors to dangerous materials such as radioactive or bio-hazardous waste.  Utilizing biometrics is a great way to ensure visitors (or unauthorized employees) never gain access to these dangerous materials. Read more

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