May 5, 2005 September 17, 2003
National Association of Healthcare Access Management conference HCT will attend this year's annual NAHAM (National Association of Healthcare Access Management) conference. The conference will be held at the Saddlebrook Resort and Spa in Tampa, FLorida May 14-17. HCT can be found in booth 6. For more information about the conference, visit www.naham.org. back to top
Beverly, Addison Gilbert Hospitals Launch Smart Card Program BEVERLY, MA - Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert hospital patients are receiving medical smart cards as part of a program designed to make hospital registration faster and more efficient. With nearly 500,000 cards to be distributed in the next 12 months, they are the first private hospitals in the United States to issue smart cards to all of their patients. The hospitals parent company Northeast Health System (NHS) has been working closely with Oklahoma City based Health Card Technologies, Inc. (HCT) for the past year to develop a patient admitting system that uses smart cards with embedded computer chips. The cards contain access codes for each patient's medical record, which are read through smart card readers attached to the hospitals' admitting terminals. "Our admissions process is easier and more convenient with patient smart cards," says Cheryl Akre Teal, director of access services of Beverly and Addison Gilbert hospitals. The access services staff can pull up the patient information instantaneously, eliminating the need for entering the record number manually. This greatly reduces the likelihood of errors such as duplicate records. Accidental creation of duplicate records is a major problem in healthcare computing. It can be caused by an errant keystroke in the data entry process, or when a patient or family member provides the wrong social security number. "These errors are not only a time-consuming headache for medical records staff, but they can cause critical medical information to be hidden from treatment professionals. With the smart card, we will decrease duplicate records and improve patient identification," says Teal. "Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals smart cards only store information that identifies the patient's records in the hospitals computers. If the card is stolen or lost, there is no security risk. Even if someone with the right tools managed to read the information on the smart card chip, they wouldn't learn anything other than the patient's record number within our system. This won't help anyone defeat all of the layers of security and access control we have in place that ensure that patient confidentially, especially when dealing with medical records, is held to the highest integrity," says Akre Teal. The smart card admissions program is just the first step in establishing a system where ultimately all patients will carry their medical history on a smart card. "Today we are addressing a very important need within hospitals to streamline admission - but more importantly, we have built the infrastructure to launch more sophisticated applications of smart cards in the future. We'll be able to offer cards that store extensive medical history information, insurance data, emergency contacts and more," said Chris Kavanaugh, CEO and president of HCT. "We can start to build a community-wide healthcare information network that links patients, care providers, and payors." NHS is fully implementing the admission program over the next several months. From there, they will be actively seeking to grow card applications. "We'll be expanding the smart card system for the next several years," said Teal. "We evaluated many alternatives and are convinced that smart cards offer the best combination of convenience and security." back to top Technology Facts Smart cards are a family of plastic wallet sized cards with embedded computer chips. These chips are available with a wide variety of security capabilities and storage capacities. Currently, smart cards are available with highly advanced built-in cryptographic engines for public key security; others have up to one megabyte of electronically reprogrammable memory. The smart card systems of Beverly and Addison Gilbert hospitals use the same technology being used in the national health care smart card program of Germany, an application of over 80 million smart cards. The smart card chips, manufactured by Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany, are models SLE4442. The smart card readers, manufactured by SCM Microsystems of Ismaning, Germany, are the Towitoko Chipdrive 130s. HCT specializes in medical applications of advanced automation technologies, and has been in business since 1994. In addition to the program in Beverly, HCT has provided smart card systems for two Oklahoma hospital networks. For more information about smart cards and Health Card Technologies, Inc., visit www.hct.com. Northeast Health System, Inc. (NHS) is an integrated health care system comprised of a network of hospitals and medical affiliates offering North Shore residents general and specialized medical care. Along with Beverly and Addison Gilbert hospitals - NHS two acute care facilities - behavioral health services are provided through Health Education Services, Inc., while substance abuse and prevention services are available through CAB Health Recovery Services, Inc. In 2002, the Solucient Institute named Beverly and Addison Gilbert hospitals among the nation s 100 Top Hospitals for the second consecutive year. For more information on Northeast Health System and its affiliates, visit www.nhshealth.org. back to top
Ardmore's Mercy Memorial Launches Smart Card Program OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - Mercy Memorial Health Center employees in Ardmore are receiving smart cards as part of a pilot program with Oklahoma City based Health Card Technologies, Inc. (HCT). The hospital and Southern Oklahoma Physicians and Hospital Organization (SOPHO) have been working closely with HCT for the past several years to help develop and test new medical applications for smart card technology. The hospital's smart cards have embedded computer chips containing each employee's medical history information, along with insurance and emergency contacts. In addition, the cards are used as photo ID badges, to identify the employee to the hospital's time and attendance system, and to allow the cardholder to charge items at the hospital gift shop. "Sophisticated as they are, the smart cards are only an enabling tool for establishing a community-wide healthcare information network that will link Ardmore care providers," said Chris Kavanaugh, CEO and president of Health Card Technology. "The need for such a network was shown its first week when the smart card system alerted several hospital employees of potentially serious conflicts in their daily medications. This demonstrates that the system has the potential to prevent such conflicts in the future, and perhaps save lives." In the coming months, SOPHO will promote the smart cards to its Ardmoremembership by touting both the benefits of electronically accessible patient information and the versatility of smart card technology to address a wide variety of needs for employee identification within the workplace. The smart card system's functionality will grow as the number of participants increase. For example, the software company that provides the onboard system for the Southern Oklahoma Ambulance Service, has agreed to integrate their system with the smart card at no cost, once 20% of the service area has a card. "Not only will the smart card system provide emergency first responders with potentially life saving patient information, it may also bring an end to the tedious job of typing patient demographic information into their run reports," Kavanaugh said. In addition to the program in Ardmore, HCT has made significant progress in other markets. It is currently working on one of the largest private healthcare smart card applications in the U.S. with a chain of Massachusetts hospitals. In this project, the smart cards will hold patient information that could expedite hospital admittance, aid in emergency medicine care, prevent patients from receiving conflicting medications, and accelerate the payment process. Plans for the smart card system for Ardmore began in 1996, with an initial prototype in 1998. As the project grows and smart cards become an integral part of Mercy Memorial Health Center's information systems infrastructure, HCT remains committed to the project and reaching further into Southern Oklahoma. "Although we're experiencing success in other regions, the relationship we have with the SOPHO healthcare community is extremely important to us," Kavanaugh said. "Ardmore is a perfect place to pilot new computing applications. The advances we've made in smart card technology could not have occurred without the insight of Ardmore physicians and healthcare administrators." HCT specializes in medical applications of advanced automation technologies, and has been in business since 1994. In addition, HCT developed a key technology for laboratory automation that was recently licensed to Apogent Technologies, the world leader in medical laboratory supplies. For more information about smart cards and Health Card Technologies, Inc., visit www.hct.com. back to top
HCT Licenses Patented Technology to Erie Scientific OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - Health Card Technologies, Inc. (HCT), entered into a worldwide licensing agreement with Erie Scientific Company ofPortsmouth,New Hampshire, to market the latest in microscope slide technology. Erie will market HCT's proprietary technology for placing machine readable codes on microscope slides. This innovation greatly reduces the chances for human errors in medical laboratories. The technology is covered under U.S. Patent Nos. 5,683,786 and 5,919,553. Erie Scientific Company is a division of Apogent Technologies - the world leader in laboratory, life science, and diagnostic products used in healthcare diagnostics and scientific research. For more information, visit Erie's web site at www.eriesci.com. back to top Job Opportunities: Software developer wanting to work with smart cards
and other ADC devices in the healthcare transaction environment: This job is located in Oklahoma City. Applicants may wish to review information at the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce web site located at http://www.okcchamber.com, paying special attention to cost of living data. To apply for this job: Please send your resume by email, fax, or mail to :
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