Parkview Adventist Medical Center
Single Sign-on and Finger Biometrics: Integrating For a Better Solution
National Award Winning Hospital Shares Its Secrets and Tells All
By Bill McQuaid, CIO, Parkview Adventist Medical Center
Overview
The pressure to increase productivity and protect patient data – among end-users and IT administrators alike – is an ongoing challenge for healthcare facilities of all types and sizes. The abundance of on-line information available to clinicians today ultimately improves productivity and potentially provides a competitive advantage in the market. But facilitating fast and secure access to that information can be complex and daunting, often accompanied by specific government mandates. This was the case at the organization I work for, Parkview Adventist Medical Center.
For some background, Parkview Adventist Medical Center is a 55-bed acute care hospital in Brunswick, Maine that has been serving the healthcare needs of the residents of midcoast Maine since 1959. Affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Parkview was founded by three Adventist doctors and is one of about 70 acute care Adventist hospitals in the United States, and approximately 200 worldwide.
“The Parkview IT team and its partners Forward Advantage, MEDITECH and Imprivata
have cut helpdesk costs and improved employee productivity, as clinicians are now spending
less time logging in and out of network applications—improving the security
of patient data and overall patient care,”
Bill McQuaid, CIO, Parkview Adventist Medical Center
For years, Parkview had taken a best-of-breed approach with interfaces to healthcare information systems, deploying a variety of niche solutions for everything from admissions to radiology. Besides making IT management increasingly complex, this approach also led to discontent among the hospital’s 350 clinicians who complained about the need to constantly sign in and out of critical applications. They were not particularly interested in new applications, making the chances of convincing them to buy into MEDITECH’s advanced clinical applications very slim.
Further complicating matters, strict regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) were put in place to improve and protect patient information. The Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE), which requires all doctors to do their own ordering using a computer, was a particular bone of contention as well. Under these regulations, Parkview was challenged to both protect patient information and at the same time, securely provide clinical staff the ability to walk up to any workstation and log into the network. They needed real-time access to applications and information that would enable them to provide timely care and service to patients.
It was clear that the hospital needed to find a solution to the growing problem of user access and patient data security, all the while adhering to compliance regulations. As with all hospitals, the number one priority at Parkview is to ensure patient safety while improving user productivity and overall security within the organization.
OneSign, One Finger
In response to these issues, our leadership IT team set out to combine all the institution’s data into one single - Health Care Information System (HCIS). After evaluating a number of technologies and options, we determined that MEDITECH, with its advanced clinical applications, would best serve Parkview’s needs. At the same time, we saw an opportunity to strengthen security and relieve the clinicians’ login/logout pains by deploying a single sign-on (SSO) solution combined with finger biometrics.
When our IT team began the process of investigating SSO solutions that would work with the MEDITECH system as well as support finger biometrics, we received counsel from Forward Advantage, a reseller that Parkview had worked with in the past. The search quickly led us to Imprivata OneSign, a non-intrusive, easy-to-install appliance that helps organizations strengthen network and application security by enabling easy, secure SSO to any application – Web, client/server, or legacy.
In our evaluations, we agreed that there were two major features that set OneSign apart from the other solutions: its all-in-one package and easy deployment. They were key features for us and the fact that the solution was appliance-based was a real plus.
We discovered that integrating finger biometrics with OneSign was equally as easy. The SSO technology would allow each user to sign on to all applications using a single password and by incorporating finger biometric scanning into the solution, we determined that it would enable each doctor or nurse to log on to any PC at the facility with a single fingertip swipe. Because finger biometrics are a form of strong authentication, this also strengthens IT security and helps meet compliance guidelines. Users enroll one or more fingerprints via a scanner, which then records them in a file associated with each user’s identification information. Thereafter, when logging in, the user again scans the fingerprint, which is compared to the print on file to complete the authentication process.
SSO and Parkview
We knew that our IT team would need the clinicians’ support to implement a new HCIS system, so we arranged a series of presentations during which we demonstrated to doctors how easy it would be for them to gain access to applications with SSO and finger biometrics -- and the clinicians were sold.
When the clinicians learned that they would log on just once, using finger biometrics to access all the applications they needed, they started to become more interested in hearing about the project. With the use of SSO and finger biometrics, the IT team was able to deliver full access to all hospital information, with just one finger - and the clinicians were delighted.
As a result, the need for physicians and staff to memorize multiple passwords was eliminated. The Parkview IT team and its partners Forward Advantage, MEDITECH and Imprivata have cut helpdesk costs and improved employee productivity, as clinicians are now spending less time logging in and out of network applications—improving the security of patient data and overall patient care.
The deployment of MEDITECH and OneSign was remarkably fast. In just six months, the IT staff of six implemented 29 MEDITECH modules. Shortly after that, the number grew to 43 modules and within two days the single sign-on solution was up and running. For almost two years now, Parkview’s 350 users have been authenticating via 100 finger biometric readers that are placed on stationary PCs or Computers on Wheels (COWs) throughout the hospital. This provides clinicians with the convenience of full access to the applications they need to be effective, while helping the hospital to comply with HIPAA.
Some of the key business results include:
- Single sign-on access to all critical applications
- Faster, more convenient login/logout for users
- Reduced IT support costs and resource requirements
- Increased user productivity
- Increased security through strong authentication with finger biometrics
- Easy adoption and consistent enforcement of security policy
- Compliance with data security requirements of HIPAA
- Higher user satisfaction levels
- Two-day deployment with minimal resource requirements
Although Parkview initially invested in finger biometrics to solve its password problems and strengthen IT security, the technology has provided additional benefits. Parkview now barcodes and scans every medication that enters the hospital. Each patient wristband also has a barcode on it, which tells a nurse if the medication being administered was ordered for that patient and is being given at the right time. The medications are only accessible for dispensing after a nurse has authenticated using finger biometrics. This process, called “bedside medication verification,” greatly reduces medication errors and ensures patient safety.
Parkview was the first hospital in Maine to deploy the solution and recently received the highest rating on the Maine Health Management Coalition’s Medication Spotlight Survey due to the technology.
About the Author
Bill McQuaid, CIO, Parkview Adventist Medical Center
Bill began his career in IT nine years ago as a network administrator before becoming the Director of IT and subsequently the CIO at Parkview Adventist Medical Center. He oversees a team of seven and is responsible for all of the hospital’s information technology initiatives. In 2006, Parkview was recognized as a national award winner in healthcare service quality by Avatar International Inc. Parkview’s overall customer satisfaction score exceeded customer expectations in a survey of all emergency room patients, as well as inpatients on the medical surgical, intensive care, maternity, day surgery and special procedures units.
|