There are many benefits to scanning patient charts. Below, you can find an engaging video describing some of the key benefits to scanning documents. Not only can this help your practice’s performance, it’s great for creating a strong relationship with patients.
As a practice, one of the main goals is to create strong relationships with their patients. This helps to facilitate better communication and patient care. Additionally, it’s important to seek more efficiency methods of conduct.
Additionally, watch the video or read the transcript below to learn more about the benefits of scanning for your practice.
Video Transcript
Why Scan Patient Charts
There’s a wide variety of benefits for adapting paperless patient charts. This ranges from saving time and improving productivity to freeing up extra space for more productive purposes.
Additionally, the true value of implementing a digital system is the ability to simplify many time-consuming and tedious tasks. All of these come with paper-based patient charts.
What You Can Do Using Paperless Patient Charts
Indexing and Organizing
As charts are integrated with an EHR, they’re indexed and organized in the new system. While paper storage may also be organized, paperless charts can be searched for by things like name or date of birth.
Searchable & Editable Charts
During the scanning process, optical character recognition (OCR) is applied so the new digital images can be edited. Additionally, the files can be searched through like any other electronic file.
Multiple File Formats
A wide range of different medical file formats can be scanned and taken paperless, including x-ray imagers and film as well. As well as, this can include items such as forms, photos, EKGs, and lab results.
How It Works
- Preparations
- Scanning
- Indexing & Integrating
- Shredding Old Copies
Preparations
Before scanning, there are a few things to take care of first. The first step is scheduling and preparing your documents for the scanning process. Additionally, this includes removing all staples, paper clips, and similar fasteners as well as fixing ripped or torn files.
Scanning
Once scanning day comes, the provider will either come to scan patient charts on site or pick them up to scan at an offsite facility.
As files convert, OCR is applied to make new digital charts editable. After scanning, files are reviewable and poor-quality images are flagged to be scanned again.
Indexing & Integrating
After scanning the charts, they can be integrated Wirth an EHR system. This will help with managing them. However, there is a step between scanning and integrating, and it is file indexing.
Before uploading files, they’re first indexed by things, including patient name, date of birth, and ID number. Therefore, you can use it to filter or re-sort records and search for different files. Additionally, you can organize patient charts by document types, list dates, and tests.
Shredding Old Copies
To safely dispose of old patient charts after scanning, it’s important to shred them afterwards.
With scanning, providers usually have their own equipment or partner to shred your paper copies as the final part of the process. To take security a step further, providers give two a formal certificate of destruction with information. Additionally, this information includes the date of destruction as well as the location and chain of custody.
The Benefits of Paperless Patient Charts
- Save time for Patient Care
- Boost Productivity and Cut Costs
- Save Valuable Real Estate
- Simplify Data Backups
- Reduce Errors Caused by Handwriting
Save Time for Patient Care
By adopting a paperless system, you can reduce the time needed to file and refile medical records. In turn, this gives you the opportunity to spend more time with your patient.
Boost Productivity and Cut Costs
Similar to the benefits of saving time, scanning patient charts helps to speed top general workflow. Because, it simplifies basic tasks like looking for and refiling documents.
Not only can this save significant amounts of tie, it can also limit or potentially eliminate the need to hire extra staff to handle file management.
Save Valuable Real Estate
Scanning patient charts clears out the large amount of space that was previously for storage. In turn, it creates a new opportunity to use it for more productive purposes, including adding more rooms for patient care.
Simplify Data Backups
Using an EHR system to manage electronic patient charts, backup systems can automatically and regularly back up data.
Besides a backup server, internet-based storage systems can also be used to back up medical records to the cloud.
Reduce Errors Caused by Handwriting
Rather than easy-to-read digital text, paper patient charts require information being written down. This can lead to potentially mixing up what it says if the handwriting is messy.
Looking to Adopt Paperless Patient Charts?
Join Children’s Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, and countless others in the healthcare community that have implemented a system for paperless patient charts. So, make the switch to an online system and join us at Record Nations today.
Record Nations partners with secure and reliable scanning providers across the nation. To get started, fill out our form on the left, give us a call at (866) 385-3706, or contact us directly through our live chat for a free, no-obligation quote from providers near you.
