i guess because the doctors do not need to go to storage, they do not understand the task of finding a file amongst a ton of files that were often not stored in the right place and just sort of boxed up.
That dynamic applies to many different situations. Of course it never happens in my practice!
Sometime when a doc asks for an old chart, one that has already been scanned, tell them that your staff is really busy, but would the doc mind going to retrieve the paper chart themselves...just this once. The answer at that point will likely be "well, I guess I don't really HAVE to have it". At that point you whip out the scanned version and remind them how fortunate they are to have such a well-prepared office manager. And remind them how great it will be when all of the charts are scanned and so readily accessible.
the only problem is that i feel some resistance in the docs willing to shred the charts
Although this makes little objective sense, it is also pretty common. We still sometimes have a hard time trusting that the computer won't lose a chart. All you can do is keep asking, "when was the last time you LOST a chart that was already in AC? And, once all of the charts have been scanned: "wouldn't it be great to stop paying that money in rental for the storage...because no one has set foot in there since we finished the scanning".
for the charts that are not 7 years old, do we enter them back into amazing charts? even if the person is deceased?
The storage of pdf's outside of AC that David proposes is a good alternative; there is really no need to put the scanned old charts into AC. We did put them in, but I can see a case for both views. On the other hand, I would suggest that you and David keep the following in mind. Remember the tagline of the movie "The Sixth Sense" which was "I see dead people"? As physicians, we generally do not see dead people. Lawyers, on the other hand, make a lot of money from dead people. I hope this never happens to you or to us, but we have to be prepared.... if you get a request from a lawyer for a chart on a dead person, then you need to be able to find that chart. The easiest way is to have a deactivated patient in AC, or you can have it stored externally, as David suggests. But do keep it, even if the patient is deceased.
