We scan into TIFF format. Through my less than scientific testing, it seemed to create the smaller file to be imported.
I am an Amazing Charts beginner, and I am actually still wrestling with the problem of how I want the new paperwork to flow through the scanner.
Really, the big problem I have been trying to solve with the scanner is the problem of old charts. I have been solo for four years, and already I have thousands of paper charts, some of them fairly large. I just really didn't want to lug the paper chart and the computer into the room.
My solution has been to select the charts we need to scan, quickly audit them (picking out duplicates and non-essentials), drop them into the hopper in one or two biggish stacks, and make make it all into one big pdf.
We are then converting the "graphic" pdf into a *searchable* text-type pdf with the software included with the ScanSnap. The program can be scheduled to convert the pdf's during "off" hours.
The idea is that I will be able to use the <ctrl>F "find" feature to locate old "allergies" entries, old "plan" entries, old "potassium" levels, or to see if a kid has ever used "cefzil" before. It is not foolproof, because the text recognition is not foolproof, but it seems to be working very well so far.
When I want to look through the old chart, I just minimize AC and look at the old stuff with Acrobat (which also came with the ScanSnap). To populate the new AC charts with the old data, I key into AC on my laptop, while looking at the old data on a stationary PC that's connected to the server where we are storing all the scanned data.
I will keep everybody posted on how this works out.
