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Whitepaper
Health Records Scanning to Enhance Efficiency and Patient Care
How scanning paper charts frees up space and staff time while improving access to patient records.
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2 min read
Written by
Daniela Marchetti
Despite the adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) systems, hospitals and medical practices alike continue to face a number of challenges as a result of paper-based patient files being maintained:
The Challenges of Paper-Based Patient Charts
Space Constraints
Paper-based charts take up a significant amount of space. In fact, in a small to medium sized clinic, paper charts can often take up more than 200 square feet. This is space that can be much better utilized to patient services and/or revenue-generating activities.
Resource Constraints
Maintaining paper-based charts limits a clinic/hospital’s ability to automate and streamline various functions, and often leads to excessive staffing requirements to:
Manage paper charts (checking in and out)
Manage physician billing
Address “rogue” documents and filing errors
Access Constraints
Paper charts can be challenging to access and even more challenging to replicate if needed. Further, the risk of housing paper charts is significant; for example, time and time again we hear about organizations losing their information to fire or flood. Digital records provide for ease of access and redundancy. Partnering with the right EMR and/or Document Management Software provider allows for access and security alike. Octacom’s Odiss™ Document Management Software is leveraged by the likes of Hamilton Health Sciences, Peterborough Regional Health Centre, Toyota and many other organizations.
How Octacom Supports Healthcare Organizations
Octacom scans and hosts tens of millions of health records in its Canadian-based private cloud on behalf on health care organizations, including hospitals and medical practices. On a daily basis, Octacom picks up daily health records from its clients and provides a commitment to swift scanning and loading to their EMRs, also providing 1-hour retrieval services on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis while health records are being scanned:
ER Records: < 6 hours
Day Surgery Records: < 12 hours
Inpatient Records: < 24 hours
When selecting a partner, ensure you’re working with a reputable and audited organization! Octacom follows robust privacy and security standards, and is a SOC 2, Type 2 Audited organization, mapped to the HITRUST Common Security Framework, one of the most respected data privacy and security frameworks with a tilt to healthcare and personal health information.
