This article is also available in French, German and Spanish.
Patients deserve high-quality care and require the use of mobile and digital platforms to access information anytime, anywhere. To meet these needs, clinics cannot afford to continue working on paper and with manual processes.
Improve the patient experience while increasing staff productivity and process efficiency with a fully digital solution.
In the day-to-day of a hospital, many interactions require the signature of patients in the hospital: disclosure of data, informed consent, etc. This information is usually incorporated manually into the hospital information system (HIS), resulting in costs, inefficiencies, and legal conflicts derived from the treatment of sensitive information.
The electronic signature is the perfect solution for information processing based on regulatory compliance. Easily adaptable to every use case in the healthcare industry, the different signature channels ensure a better patient experience and better coordination with the clinics. In addition, with VIDsigner you will improve administrative processes, reduce environmental impact, and optimize internal and external operations.
Use cases
These are some of the interactions for which the electronic signature can be the solution:
1. Informed consent: one of the elements of the medical-care relationship that most concerns physicians and patients themselves is the Informed Consent document. It is important to adapt this document to each patient as much as possible to avoid any violation of the duty of medical information, as well as to have sufficient evidence to indicate active acceptance. Thanks to the variety of Validated ID's electronic signature methods, it is possible to facilitate this agreement in both face-to-face and remote services.
2. Data Protection: data protection goes beyond a set of rules, especially when handling high-risk data, such as personal financial information, informed consents, or medical records. Electronic signatures are a secure, auditable, and easy-to-use solution for meeting the active consent requirement and demonstrating the details of how consent was obtained, including what was consented to, when, and by whom.
3. Clinical reports: electronic signatures are an indispensable element for the digital development of clinical reports. Because Validated ID is a Qualified Trusted Service Provider, they are a robust means to identify the author of medical record entries, confirm the accuracy and integrity of the content according to the author's intent, and ensure that the integrity of the electronic signature is maintained throughout the life of the electronic medical record.
4. Covid anamnesis: a good anamnesis and examination can guide the diagnosis clearly, so they are essential. Before administering the COVID-19 vaccine, for example, it is important to check any relevant medical history, including allergies and any date of vaccination; route/site used; and the name and signature of the physician who administered the vaccine.
5. Telemedicine: traditionally, medical consultations were carried out in a safe professional environment in person. With the risk created by the expansion of the coronavirus and the overcapacity in hospitals, the need has arisen to continue attending patients in a safer way avoiding unnecessary trips, without detriment to the face-to-face visit.
Pioneering experiences in private healthcare
At Validated ID we have collaborated with two major health centers that needed a tool to improve their operations, adaptable to their different circumstances and, at the same time, be easy to use and easy to implement.
Mesa Del Castillo Hospital is a private and state-funded medical facility located in Murcia, that offers health care with a large part of the private insurance companies, labor, sports, and traffic.
One of the services with the greatest interaction of patients, clients, and staff is the hospital's physiotherapy treatments. Patients must sign the "Attendance Record” each time they attend a rehabilitation session. Specialists, at the same time, must draw up the medical report corresponding to the completion of the visit of each patient.
The large volume of participants in the healthcare and administrative process generates a large amount of documentation, so the hospital needed a solution that would improve the administrative process to add greater value to the service already offered by the hospital.
The technological solution, by Nunsys, was based on the implementation of a document management software with electronic signatures that automatically generates medical reports with the prescribed treatments by the specialists, allows patients to sign the attendance record with a tablet, and integrates with the existing hospital information system, that then files all relevant documents under the patient's medical record, signed with an electronic signature with the qualified hospital stamp.
With VIDsigner, the Mesa Del Castillo Hospital has managed to improve and automate the entire documentary process, eliminate the use of paper with the consequent savings and add a legal guarantee to the entire process thanks to the biometric signature and the use of electronic certificates, following the guidelines set by data protection.
For its part, the San Roque University Hospitals are a network of leading centers in private health in the Canary Islands that are more than 100 years old. Since its inception, they have stood out for a commitment to constant growth, the values of their team, and the incorporation of the latest technology to offer better service to their patients, families, and caregivers.
Digitalization has always been a fundamental pillar for the network of San Roque University Hospitals when it comes to meeting important objectives. Thanks to the implementation carried out by the company Inerza, a technological partner of Validated ID, a digital signature system was developed that ensures the provision of data from the Hospital Information System (HIS) for patient, interventions, and operating room data, for example, or from face-to-face care, allowing the user to fill in the data not present in the system request. And a third use case that they have recently deployed is the biometric signature of the GDPR document for users who come to perform the Covid19 antigen Test and Covid19 PCR Test.
Currently, the Centers collect two types of signatures:
- Biometric signature (VIDsigner BIO) for the onboarding of patients: informed consents and authorizations.
- Centralized signature (VIDsigner Centralized) for the signature of medical reports that require the signature of professionals.
The importance of having patient data integrated
The integration of applications via API Rest is not only a key element for technological modernization in the Social and Health field, but it also allows to ensure patient protection. A technological instrument such as the electronic signature integrated within the medical software is a guarantee for the prevention of accidents when it comes to medical interventions and tests, and a valuable resource to offer the patient a pleasant incorporation into their entire medical experience.