HealthPartners streamlines ID photo capture across 150+ sites and 32,000 employees
A Customer Story
When Josh Bertelson became the Director of Security Systems and Technology at HealthPartners, they had 11 different access control systems and 10 different ID badge photo processes. There was nothing standardized or streamlined about it. This lack of uniformity was a key driver behind the HealthPartners One Badge project, an internal initiative to standardize the organization’s ID badges across its entire network of 32,000 employees, vendors, contractors, 150+ clinics, and eight hospitals.
The initiative promised easier processes in the long run, but pulling it off proved challenging. HealthPartners quickly ran into several major issues: inconsistent photo capture methods led to photos submitted in various formats and styles, photo quality and background continuity were significant hurdles, manual capture and processing options were exhausting and inefficient, and the consideration of hiring a third-party service to go on-site and take photos was too costly. Josh described the situation as “a lot of planning, scheduling, and tracking... and we were still missing the consistency we needed.”
Not for lack of effort, HealthPartners’ One Badge Project failed to move forward as smoothly as Josh and his team wished. They set out to solve their problems at ISC West, where they went into the week with a game plan of finding a solution that could streamline their photo operation. After making a timely connection at the HID booth, Josh was pointed towards RemotePhoto! Everything about the solution sounded good, but Josh had a few initial reservations about the product.
RemotePhoto was new to healthcare, raising concerns about whether the product could handle the scale and regulatory nuances of a large healthcare organization. There was also the risk of the unknown; any new SaaS implementation can come with potential performance, integration, and reliability risks. Josh knew bringing in a new solution meant facing technical hurdles and stakeholder skepticism; he didn’t want to implement something that failed to solve the whole problem or solve it the way they needed.
After more discussions with the RemotePhoto team, it was a clear operational fit - scaling their remote photo capture, automating badge workflows, saving time and money, and fitting easily with their One Badge Project. Josh also found that working with RemotePhoto brought quick, productive collaboration. From the very first meeting, the RemotePhoto team demonstrated a strong willingness to listen and adapt the product to HealthPartners’ needs. Instead of a square photo, they needed a circle - done. Josh recounts that RemotePhoto’s speedy and effective responses helped build trust between the two organizations; “When we ran into some challenges, you guys really stepped up. That invalidated any hesitation I had.” In the end, RemotePhoto’s rapid support, adaptability, and product fit gave Josh the confidence to move forward with the solution.
HealthPartners has integrated RemotePhoto into their badge management workflow, initially using the solution to rebadge existing employees. The long-term plan is to integrate RemotePhoto into HR onboarding at HealthPartners, enabling new hires to submit ID photos before day 1, meaning their ID badges can be ready upon arrival.
While they continue to offer in-person photo booths to serve staff members who prefer human interaction or feel less confident with technology, Josh explains that HealthPartners has achieved uniform photo standards across all badges while saving “both time and money—for our colleagues and the organization as a whole.”
We are excited to see how HealthPartners will continue integrating RemotePhoto into their systems. You can listen to the whole conversation with Josh Bertelson on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or watch the full podcast episode on YouTube. Everything is linked below! 👇🏼
Listen on Apple Podcasts.
Listen on Spotify.
