American Hospitals get Smart

CHICAGO, US: The American Hospital Association, through its subsidiary, AHA Solutions, Inc., has announced its exclusive endorsement of EXTENSION HealthID, a smart card that holds individual patient data for use by the hospitals to improve the care experience.

A press release further tells that hospitals are able to quickly find and use patient’s information within an individual facility or across their system or network. The benefits of the smart card include providing much improved patient experiences and streamlined administrative costs.

The AHA’s endorsement of HealthID comes at a pivotal time for the health care field, when efficiently maintaining and accessing accurate patient information is increasingly important.

AHA Solutions President and CEO Anthony Burke says, “The smart card solution enables hospitals to capture, update, access and transfer critical data seamlessly and securely, and provides data interoperability among affiliated sites. By streamlining the flow of information, it also benefits patients, providing them with better service and ultimately improving their quality of care.”

Smart cards store medical and demographic information, creating a portable, secure record unique to each patient. Health care providers and emergency responders who are not connected to the network also can securely access patient information through a downloadable web-based card reader. Future use of the HealthID could include authentication and data sharing with personal health records systems such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault.