Palm Scanners Debut at Lehigh Valley Hospital

will debut electronic palm scanning devices in April at its three hospitals, according to hospital officials.

LVHN is only the fifth hospital system in the country to use palm scanners, which protect patient information, ensure accuracy and speed up patient registration, officials said.

Palm scanners are often compared to fingerprint machines because they capture unique patterns, but they use different technologies. While a fingerprint machine digitally scans the image of surface skin pattern, the palm scan uses infrared light to trace the unique pattern in a palm from the heat generated from blood in veins.

"Palm scanning is all about patient safety.  It's a fast, safe, reliable way to
make sure that patients are properly identified when they enter the health
care system," said Dr. Michael Consuelos, vice chair of pediatrics at LVHN.

Consuelos said the technology is especially useful when a patient is unresponsive and can be used to match a person with his or her medical record.

"This saves valuable time and provides the medical team with important medical information that can be used to treat the patient in a more reliable and safe manner," he said.

Palm scanners would also expedite patient registrations, said Fred Armbuster, director of revenue cycle applications at LVHN. Patients who return to Lehigh Valley Hospital would only have to provide their date of birth to a registrar and put their hand on a scanner to be identified.

Palm scanners will be used at diagnostic care centers and emergency rooms at Lehigh Valley Hospital locations in Salisbury Township, Allentown and Bethlehem Township.

The use of biometrics, or technology that uses an individual's unique biological characteristics for identification,  is relatively new in the United States.  Palm scanners have been used instead of bank cards at ATMs in Japan since 2004 and several U.S. nuclear power plants use them to identify employees, Armbuster said.