Records Management Blog | Practical Records Management

Digitizing Medical Records? Here are some things to consider

President Obama has vowed the U.S. will digitize all medical records by 2014, and an economic stimulus package passed by Congress last year allocates $20 billion toward the process. So Hospitals, group medical practices and physicians who for the most part have shied away from transitioning to a full-fledged Electronic Medical Record (EMR), are now compelled to take action. While the stimulus dollars will help defray the cost of implementing the infrastructure to migrate to EMR, the question of how or whether or not to digitize all or a portion of the Medical Record archive needs careful consideration.

Digitizing the archive requires a fairly labor intensive process; preparing the charts by removing paper clips, staples, etc., scanning, assigning index values to the scanned images and importing the data to the EMR. The value of having patient historical information as part of the new EMR system is clear, but what if the charts are rarely if ever accessed? What if, as in the instance of specialty practices such as Cardiology, it's not known when or if a patient will ever need to be seen again? Retention requirements mandate that the chart be maintained for as long as 10 years from the last visit.

One solution that should be considered is storing the older, less frequently retrieved charts offsite, at a secure, climate controlled location, with a Certified Document Management partner like Shoreline Records Management. Our Medical Record Storage Services allow healthcare organizations the flexibility to store charts in an efficient, cost effective manner, yet have them digitized on demand. Once digitized, the electronic chart is transmitted securely and imported directly into the organizations EMR system. Requests are fulfilled 24 hours, 7 days a week, often in as little as two hours.

In the scenario of frequently retrieved charts such as Pediatrics, digitizing the entire archive is more likely. Our Medical Record scanning service center is equipped with several of the latest high speed document scanners capable of capturing images at a rate of over 120 pages per minute. Projects that would take months or even years if done in house with current staff can be done quickly and affordably, allowing the organization to access historical Patient information within the new EMR system.

Document Management and the EMR - Conflicting Signals

There's a great post on the Hyland Software blog about how the Electronic Health Record needs to show more than just Patient Data. The post highlights some feedback from Last Month's HIMSS Conference, but the point is that Healthcare Organizations need to keep their eyes and ears open as they move forward with implementing Electronic Medical Record Systems.

It's alarming how many of these EMR Vendors are creating completely closed systems and relying on inexperienced technical resources to develop their "Document Management" portfolio. I would compare this to Ford Motor Company deciding that they were going to let Automotive Engineers design the LCD Screens in their newest Vehicles... It just doesn't make sense. The logical choice is to let the LCD Screen Makers do what they do best while Ford focuses on producing quality vehicles.

The Document Management has an entire industry behind it with focused, specialized software products that address issues such as integration, distributed capture, and technical details such as Image Caching, Security, and Audit Trails. Most of the EMR Vendors that I've been exposed to have a great core competency in managing Data relating to a Patient - meaning that they excel information that is natively electronic or input directly into their product. I've seen a trend, however, where the Document Management piece of the solution is much more of a bolt-on that doesn't work quite as nicely or provide the features of a true Enterprise Content Management System.

In the end, the best case scenario for many practices, clinics, and hospitals is to choose the EMR that is going to suit their Clinical Practice the best, while at the same time exploring a Document Management Solution that enables efficient Medical Record Scanning for Legacy Information and tight integration with various business and clinical applications, including the EMR. This strategy provides the best long-term prognosis for success by leveraging the strengths of each technology while not sacrificing future flexibility or scale.

What's been your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments!

3 Reasons to Outsource Your Document Scanning Project

As more and more companies implement Document Management Systems to help them deal with their growing paper problems, I wanted to share with you three reasons why you should think twice before jumping headfirst into Document Scanning using your own resources. Three Reasons to carefully consider outsourcing your document imaging requirements to a Professional Document Scanning Company are:

1. Lower Cost - Virtually all practices looking to begin scanning files will start by Purchasing a Document Scanner. The good news is that most of the scanners on the market today are of decent quality and offer most of the same features. Unfortunately, most of the document scanners that companies purchase fall into the Desktop or Workgroup Category, meaning that they can only scan about 1,000 Pages Per Day. If you're looking to process a significant volume of documents, you will need a High Volume Scanner, which can be significantly more expensive - even upwards of $20,000. In addition to having to buy more expensive equipment to address a significant Backfile Scanning project, you'll also need to dedicate Labor Resources to Pull Staples, Run the Scanner, and Index all of the scanned images. All of this costs money, and since Document Scanning is not within the core competency for most businesses, it takes more time to get through the process. Using an Professional Document Scanning Company lets you have all of your document scanned for a low price per image meaning that your costs are directly correlated to the number of documents to be converted, not the amount of time that it takes.

2. Improved Turnaround - If you believe the old adage that people will make the work fill up the time, then Document Scanning is a sinkhole for employees looking to make the work last. It's difficult for many companies to judge the performance of a Document Scanning operation, and as a result many projects will take far longer as expected as staff blames the equipment, the quality of the paper, and nearly anything else they can find for the poor turnaround. An Outsourced Document Scanning Company will be responsible for delivering results in a designated timeframe, and it will be in their best interest to turnaround your job as quickly as possible because they don't get paid by the hour!

3. Improved Quality and Accountability - Like so many things in life, experience makes the difference in the Quality of Document Scanning results. Outsourcing your Document Scanning means that you'll have a team of professionals to ensure that your work is done correctly and that both image quality and data accuracy are given the attention that they deserve. In the event that there are issues with the completed project and you need something to be corrected, a Professional Document Scanning Company you will also be able to turn to your chosen vendor to help make things right.

Bottom line, think twice before you take on a large Document Scanning Project with your own equipment and resources. It may be more than you bargained for, and you may be able to save a lot of headaches by outsourcing the work to a team of document imaging professionals.

How Much Does Medical Record Scanning Cost?

We talk a lot on our blog about Medical Record Scanning as more and more people are out there looking for services to support the nationwide rollout of EMR Solutions. It's common, however, that we get a request from someone looking for a rough idea of Medical Record Scanning Prices. It's an understandable question, as I know that I wouldn't want to sign up for anything without at least having an idea as to what the price was!

Well, I first need to preface this with the standard - your Mileage may vary, but depending on the complexity of your project, typical medical record scanning prices are between $.04 and $.12 Per Image. Some of the factors that will influence these prices are:

• The amount of Document Preparation Required - If your Medical Records have a lot of Staples, Clips, and fastners, or if you need files to be sorted based on sections and sub-sections of the chart, you'll likely be toward the higher end of the pricing scale.
• The Volume of Medical Records to be Converted - Document Scanning Services are one of those things where it definitely pays to buy in Bulk. Our Price per page builds in all of the setup and administrative costs, and those are offset by having a higher number of pages to convert.
• The Indexing Criteria Required - If you need to search for Patient Information based on First Name, Last Name, and Medical Record ID Number, that's pretty standard. If, however, you want to add additional information to your images - Phone Number, Addresses, etc. - it will require more time, and ultimately will affect the price per image. (Keep in Mind that if you already have a EMR or Database system that we can use to lookup additional data based on Medial Record ID Number, you can add as much or as little of this information as you'd like.

If you're looking to get a quote for your Medical Record Scanning project, please take the time to get an estimate based on your specific requirements. We'll be glad to provide you with an estimate, and we can even provide you with a sample of our services to let you see how easy our process is and so that you can get a feel for the quality of our work.

Bulk Document Scanning - Make it someone else's problem!

If you're staring at a mountain of paper and not sure where to start, take a deep breath and read on. Bulk Document Scanning is easier than you think. When it comes to converting significant volumes of paper, the easiest, most cost effective option is often to outsource it to a professional document scanning company like Shoreline Records Management.

Bulk Document Scanning is not like most scanning projects, where one or two files need to be captured at a time, and therefore usually calls for a different approach. The key to scanning significant amounts of paper is to ensure that there is a repeatable, high quality process in place to ensure that all of the documents are scanned and indexed accurately so that they can be retrieved when needed. This often takes not only high-speed scanning equipment, but also a very specialized process involving teams of people who specialize in each facet of Bulk Document Scanning Projects incuding:

Document Preparation - Pulling Staples and Sorting through Boxes and Boxes of Paper is a necessary component of Bulk Document Scanning projects. That's why Shoreline has a team of Document Preparation Specialists who work to ensure that your documents are cared for, sorted, and classified correctly so that you can find your content when you need it.

Document Scanning - Trying to Scan Tens of Thousands of Pages through most office scanners is a certain recipe for a service call. Shoreline uses Production Document Scanners to ensure that capturing tens of thousands of pages per day is a breeze. Our operation is engineered for high volume scanning and we use industry leading technology to ensure the best possible image quality at the same time.

Indexing - To effectively index a bulk document scanning project requires a team of dedicated index operators. Documents must be accurately indexed to ensure that files can be found when searched for.

Quality Control - Ensuring that images are clearly scanned and accurately indexed is essential to a Bulk Document Scanning Project. Outsourcing means that there is an entire team focused on document scanning while you stay focused on your business.

If you're staring at a lot of paper and looking for the quickest, most cost-effective way to convert it to digital images, consider Outsourcing. Bulk Document Scanning is so much easier when it's someone else's problem!

Backfile Scanning Takes a Step Forward

Backfile Scanning is becoming increasingly important for companies who begin Document Imaging projects. Most of the time, these projects start innocently enough, with a company looking to take advantage of the many benefits that electronic document management has to offer - reduced costs, improved efficiency, increased compliance, etc. Soon after though, the glamorous vision of the paperless office is quickly replaced by a harsh reality - someone has to do all the work!

Whether you're scanning medical charts, converting loan files, or processing applications, Document Imaging is never as simple as just putting some pages through a scanner. This is especially true when dealing with a backfile scanning project. In order to start the process, someone needs to go through the files and remove all of the staples, repair dog-eared corners, tape small pages, and partake in other fun paper-processing tasks. In addition, the files must be sorted correctly to ensure that the structure of the files will be meaningful and useful when the files make their way to the document imaging system. This process involves inserting barcoded separator pages or stacking the pages in a specific way to allow the system to recognize one document from another. Quite often people don't realize that this manual document preparation work is required before you've even put the first page through the scanner.

After the preparation is done, the files must then go through the scanner and be captured as images. This too seems easy enough, except that most document scanners are not designed to handle thousands or tens of thousands of pages in a day. High Volume scanning requires specialized equipment that can sometimes cost $20,000 or more.

If you've made it this far into the process, you now will need to accurately Index your documents by tagging the files with appropriate metadata, or keywords, and then implement a process for Quality Control of scanned documents.

The good news is that the document imaging project isn't the problem. The problem is that Backfile Scanning is a lot of work, and most of the time is better suited to be an outsourced initiative. By outsourcing your backfile scanning, you can keep your staff focused on more productive tasks while a team of professionals handles your scanning needs. By using Outsourced Scanning Services to handle your backfile, all that you're responsible for is a fixed price per image. The service provider will be responsible for handling the document preparation, scanning, indexing and quality control and would provide you with images via CD, DVD or FTP.

To find out more about our backfile scanning services, check out our Document Scanning Services section and contact us to see how we can help with your specific requirements.

Medical Record Scanning gets New Meaning

The team at CNN.com recently highlighted how a Bronx Healthcare clinic is using a new type of Optical Recognition to retrieve Medical Records, and it’s not quite what you’d think of when you bring up Medical Record Scanning . The clinic – Urban Health Plan – is using Scans of a Patient’s Iris (the unique part of the eye) to accurately locate and match patient records. The article cites many examples of why this technology is so useful, particularly in a clinic that boasts 103 Patients with the name Jose Rodriguez!

As this new, innovative technology begins to replace the old check-in process at this particular clinic, there must also be consideration given to another type of Medical Record Scanning – the physical patient chart. With a flurry of new technology being created, marketed, and sold to Medical Practices across the country, document scanning for the paper-based chart is becoming that much more important. While the CNN article doesn’t “Sight” (Sic) whether or not Urban Health Plans is retrieving a physical paper-based chart or using an Electronic Medical Record System, There is certainly another level of efficiency that can be achieved by having their Iris-Based Scan Technology retrieve an electronic copy of the Patient Chart directly to the point of care.

While Shoreline's primary focus is on helping practices convert their Paper-Based Charts to Digital Images through Medical Record Scanning, I must applaud Urban Health Plans for their innovative and effective use of emerging technology. As a technologist (and a Healthcare Consumer) I believe that anything that can help reduce errors, eliminate costs, and improve the quality of care is a step in the right direction. Kudos!

For More Information, Check Out:

Urban Health Plan

CNN.com - "At Bronx Clinic, The eyes are windows to Medical Records"

Shoreline Records Management - Medical Record Scanning 

Medical Record Scanning Project Preparation Guide

In order to efficiently manage a Medical Record Scanning Project, it’s helpful to understand what is involved in the process.  A clear step by step overview will help clarify expectations and will save you lots of time and frustration later on.

Scanning medical records is not overly complicated, and with some careful planning, you can ensure that your practice runs more smoothly and efficiently than ever before. Also, If you're inclined to outsource, selecting a company that works with you as a partner can result in greater satisfaction with the process and the end result.

The following are the steps to the medical document scanning process.

1.  Analyze - First, identify what documents are to be scanned.  Medical Files can be boxed and labeled so they are able to be transported.  It’s important to have a system to be sure you know what’s in the boxes, just in case there is a need for one of the documents during this process.   A qualified vendor should work side by side with you when scanning medical records to be sure that you have access to your charts. Be sure to confirm this during your vendor selection process.

2.  Inventory - Prior to beginning a Medical Record Scanning Project, an inventory should be created highlighting all of the charts you want to convert. This can be something that your staff does, or your vendor offers.   Don't overlook this step - You will want to be absolutely sure that you've captured all of your Charts, and this is the best way to give you confidence in the process.   

3.  Preparation - Imagine the havoc that staples and ripped or torn documents can do to a copier... well, they don’t work well with scanners either.  Before scanning medical documents, any torn pages must be repaired, sorted, and staples, clips, fasteners, etc. must be removed.  This is time consuming, and most companies who take on scanning medical documents instead of outsourcing become frustrated at this point. Remember, Clean, clear, useful document scans are entirely dependent upon this step.

4.  Scanning. Each medical document is scanned.  During this phase the identification of the documents is entered. Again, somewhat labor intensive, this phase requires attention to detail that many companies just don’t put in.  If you are scanning medical records yourself, and hire temporary workers, you may wind up with less than professional results.  Especially for scanning medical records and documents, this is important.   (Shoreline’s team are expert at ensuring efficient and competent production at our service center.)

 

5.  Quality Control. The last thing that you want is to pull up a patient’s record at a critical moment and the information is indecipherable.  A good quality control to evaluate every image will assure this doesn’t happen. Missing documents, missing images are unacceptable. (At Shoreline, every image is reviewed to be sure it can be read. We also make sure we didn’t miss any documents or images during the scanning process.)

6.  Index. Indexing the documents is another critical element of scanning medical documents. In order to be found easily, the index utilizes an identifier such as the patient’s dob, patient ID, social, or patient number.   As records are scanned, charts are captured and tagged in a manner consistent with the EMR or EHR program.

7.  Import Data.  The scanned medical records that have been indexed are entered into the electronic records system.  The vendor should work with your records management vendor to assure that the documents are successfully accessed upon demand. Imaged information is integrated into the EMR or EHR system. 

8.  Disposition or Inventory.  From time to time, records must be destroyed or re-called to be accessed physically.  A document solution provider should be capable of providing a secure system for both. Whether the document is to be stored in a climate controlled environment within a warehouse, or to be destroyed, the security of the information is of paramount importance, particularly with HIPAA requirements of medical records.  (At Shoreline, Certified Document Destruction is offered for sensitive information.) 

Medical Records Scanning Services help Reduce Risk

Hurricane force winds and gale rains toppled trees and created havoc in the New York Metropolitan area this weekend. Thousands were without power, and the storms caused  damage to countless homes and businesses. So What does this have to do with medical record scanning?

Scanning medical documentsand other important records is a safe way to

 ensure that your files are safe in the event of a natural disaster.  Case in point, most group practices try to make the most of the space that they use for offices, patient rooms, waiting areas. When it comes to documents and storing them, often a less desirable space is where the documents are stored. Many doctor’s offices will use a basement or garage area for storage where thousands of files are kept.

During the recent downpours in the NY Metro area, there were downed trees, localized flooding and damage to buildings.  High winds and Nor’easter conditions are not that frequent, but they do happen, just like Tornados on the Plains or Hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. From a Document Management perspective, The dilemma is that when the rainfall is coupled with the soggy, saturated ground conditions, there is nowhere for the water to go and consequently, many previously dry basement storage areas are suddenly prone to wet conditions or flooding.

Wet files are then a place where mold and other toxic and bio-hazards can grow.  In the damp environment, even a relatively dry area can be a breeding ground. Retrieving the files is unpleasant, and may also result in exposure to the mold.  Not the healthiest of conditions.

By scanning medical records, or by storing them offsite, this recipe for unpleasantness can be easily avoided.  In addition, a hybrid solution where scanned medical document and offsite document storage solution enables the practice to maintain medical records offsite, as well as access key information on demand.  Now is the time to take action and protect your valuable records. And keep in mind that whatever option you choose, Scanning medical records will lead to improved efficiency and reduced errors and also help your practice transition towards the future of the Paperless Medical Office. 

Document Scanning - Where to begin??

It's easy to identify most of the leading reasons why it's become best practice for Companies in all industries to scan their business critical paper documents; Access, collaboration, Workflow, Security, Space Savings.  Don't forget regulatory compliance, Audit control and privacy concerns for good measure. Capturing, storing and retrieving any document at any time from any location allows businesses to reduce costs associated with records management while increasing process efficiency and improving customer service.

Now that you've been convinced, the next question is how? One solution that should be considered is partnering with an experienced Document Management company that offers outsourced scanning services. Many companies have made the mistake of investing in imaging hardware, software and the necessary personnel to manage high volume scanning environments, only to struggle with a process that is not at the core of what the business does. Converting paper documents to electronic images is not overly difficult, but neither is changing your own oil. Thank goodness for Jiffy Lube!

Outsourced scanning services companies can manage the process better than most in-house solutions because it is their core business. Your company leverages the economies of scale found in a service operation. Attention to detail, especially at the document preparation table is critical to the success of any scanning project. If the documents are not separated correctly, if all staples, paper clips and post it notes are not removed, the process will slow down and ultimately the results the end user sees will be uneven, causing them to lose confidence in the solution.   

Experienced Document Scanning Organizations are regularly upgrading and maintaining their equipment to take advantage of the latest technology. Advanced document recognition allows images to be read and desired keywords or index criteria automatically extracted, eliminating the need for manual data entry while keeping the cost of the service down.

Outsourcing your scanning projects allows you to concentrate on your core business functions while taking advantage of all the benefits of fast, reliable, secure document access.