Case Study: University of Utah Health achieves reduced duplicate medical records and improved patient safety with Imprivata PatientSecure

Palm Vein Biometrics Solution Ensures Positive Patient Identification and Reduces Duplicate Medical Records

University of Utah Health is a 700‑bed academic health system in Salt Lake City serving about 1.1 million outpatient visits and 50,000 ER visits annually across a six‑state region. Rapid growth and high visit volume created duplicate medical records and overlays that drove significant cleanup costs (master patient index work up to $650,000 and per‑incident HIM costs), threatened revenue and patient safety, and eroded patient trust.

The system implemented Imprivata PatientSecure, a palm‑vein biometric positive patient identification solution integrated with Epic, in a simple SQL/app server deployment completed in 3–4 months. High patient adoption created a 1:1 biometric link to records, reducing duplicate records and medical identity fraud, cutting cleanup time and costs, lowering denied claims and write‑offs, and improving patient safety and experience.

University of Utah Health

Travis McKee

Senior Application System Analyst