Our office is in the process of going completely paperless for all new records. I would like to add a scanner to the front desk so they could directly scan in new pt. registration forms, history forms, insurance cards, HIPAA forms, etc. - currently we make this and attach it to the first superbill. Currently 2 people in our small office scan everything in and then basically shred almost everything we get - I am getting ready to fully quit making new charts -- simply put them with the superbill and then scan/shred. It was getting overwhelming how much paper comes through our office. I have been in practice 5 years and the charts in my office take up more space then the previous doctor in practice in that building had used (he was there 15 years).
Currently we get labs printed to paper and I review them, make notes and generate a preprinted form which I put in the results for them and any followup instructions - this is scanned in with the labs (last page of that lab) and then mailed to the patient (although costly - easier than trying over and over to call patients with results), x-rays the same way. Notes, forms, records from consultants are all handled the same way.
We currently use a fujitsu scanner (only drawback is that it is not TWAIN compatible) - 2 people know how (plus me - I do sometimes also on weekends when am working). Easy to scan, but takes some computer savvy to learn. I set everything on highest compression, black and white (except when I get retinal pictures or colonoscopy pictures etc - thinking about not keeping these since I did not generate them and they can be obtained elsewhere). My wife who works in my office does a lot of the scanning and says that it goes very fast - she likes the fact that we are not keeping so many files.
I am considering scanning old records and then getting rid of the old charts, but that would take a lot of scanning and I am not sure how much Amazing Charts could store and not be overwhelmed. I would also be more likely to do this if there was a way to transfer records by CD/DVD/Thumb Drive when pt. want to go to another office or move. I have suggested this using the suggest improvements button and hope that this would be something other users would suggest also. Wouldn't it be great if you had 5 years of records and wanted to transfer them all on a CD/DVD to another doctor or to someone else if you wanted another entity to become the record custodian ????
