We are in the process of implementing AC, and I am going to post things as we go under "lessons learned." I am going to forget soon, and they may help someone else starting out...
We initially assumed we would be culling old records to be scanned in. Then, someone thought "why bother?" Imported files arenot all that useful; they are not well indexed, you can't search on them, and they take up a lot of disk space. The paper chart space is not going to get any bigger, and will gradually shrink as patients move off, and the charts age and can be destroyed. We are not in critical need of the space. So, no scanning in old charts. Just go look at them if you need them.
Some things come in that do need to be imported. We bought a $500 scanner, only to find it did not do TWAIN files. We sent it back. Instead, we are using UpDox, and if something needs to be imported, we will fax it to ourselves. UpDox makes it very easy to import, sign off, and notify the patient via the patient portal if necessary. Although we have to pay for faxes, it is going to be cheaper than having to have an employee scanning, importing, etc. We plan to use significant "import discipline"; the issue is the number of imported files, and the ability to do remote backups. We plan to import only those things that have a direct impact on our ability to deliver care; not everything that anyone sends us unrequested.
UpDox is proving to be an extremely useful tool.
Last edited by dgrauman; 05/07/2010 12:12 AM.
