title: Patient fingerprinting speeds up registration, cuts medical records backlog, mistakes.
abstract: La Porte (IN) Hospital is using cool new fingerprint scanners in its patient registration areas to speed up sign-in for patients and reduce backlogs of duplicate medical records. Once the hospital stores an electronic copy of a patient's fingerprint on file, future admissions take as little as a minute. The hospital was the first in the country to employ the potentially money-saving technology, and it's drawing lots of interest.
mesh_terms: D000289:Admitting Department, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D017046:Cost Savings; D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007318:Inservice Training; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000145:classification*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010355:Patient Identification Systems; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013996:Time and Motion Studies