VUHID Benefits

Remember, participation in the VUHID system is voluntary. You and you alone will determine if and when you want to participate by receiving one or more VUHID identifiers. At the present time we anticipate the following benefits for those that choose to participate.

1. Convenience
   Once you have received your VUHID identifier you should no longer have to repeatedly supply your identifying information. When you hand your VUHID identifier to the receptionist in a hospital, clinic or doctor's office the medical facility will be able to retrieve your identifying information directly from the EMPI facility.
2. No patient identification errors
   Linking your medical information using EMPI demographic matching always includes the possibility for error. A false positive error that occurs during demographic matching means that your medical information could be co-mingled with that of some other person, a very dangerous situation. A false negative error means that some of your medical information might not be identified as belonging to you, also a serious problem but less dangerous than a false positive. By using your VUHID identifier you will be able to have confidence that your physicians have your complete medical information, and only your medical information, in your comprehensive medical record.
3. Reduced risk of identity theft
   Participating in the VUHID identification system means that your medical information will be linked using your VUHID identifier, not your name, address, birth date, Social Security Number, telephone number, etc. This means that you will not need to provide this information repeatedly to identify yourself nor will your personal information need to be sent electronically to other healthcare agencies. Because your identifying information stays with you, there is substantially decreased risk of identity theft occurring. If ever your identifier becomes compromised -- for example your ID card is stolen -- there is a process to retire that identifier and issue you a new, unrelated identifier. Thus, for participants in the VUHID system their VUHID identifier may be at risk but their identity is not.
4. Better control of your medical privacy
   A key benefit of the VUHID system is the ability to provide private identifiers (PVIDs) to an individual. Private identifiers work by enabling electronic linkage of various types of clinical information without revealing who that information is about. For example, suppose your physician wanted to order an AIDS test but did not want anyone to know who that test was for. They could acquire a PVID, attach it to the sample and the laboratory would return that result to your physician using only that PVID for identification. No one else in the chain of people who process that sample would ever know who that sample, or the test result, was about. Only you, your physician and the EMPI would be aware of the identity of the person. Similar situations might apply for psychiatric information, substance abuse information, - anything that you might choose to treat as private healthcare information. Using VUHID PVIDs you, as a patient, will have much better control over the privacy of your information.
5. Better medical care
   The entire reason to implement the VUHID system is to make it feasible for your physician to have your complete and accurate medical information available when they provide you with medical care. It has repeatedly been shown that a physician equipped with your full medical information is able to provide more efficient and less error-prone care for their patients. The VUHID system aims to play a key role in making that optimum care feasible by ensuring that there is never any confusion concerning your identity.