Home Forums Discussions Problems Problems with scanning

We are having problems with our scanning. We scan using our multi-purpose brother fax/printer/scanner into AC. The scanned items are saved into the patient chart and appear on the screen as pdfs. The next day when we check often the subtitle is there but the scanned item is deleted with an error message stating the there is a missing item. We tried disconnecting the scanner from the network and connecting it directly to the main computer with the same result. Your input, suggestions, advice would be most appreciated. In the meantime, we cannot scan and shred our medical records.

The first question is how are you importing into AC.

Are you keeping a copy the the item scanned or deleting it?

Have you checked your import items folder to see whether the item exists a) shortly after scanning and b) the next day.

I would second Wendel's question - is the file there when you navigate into the Imported Items folder?

What happens with the server and the drive that the data is on overnight? Does it stay on? Are you running a backup other than the AC backup? Are you having problems with any other app/data on that machine?

Are the folders that AC creates within the Imported Items directory there the next day?

Just trying to get more details to try and help you diagnose.

Hi Dr. Pearl,

Welcome to AC.

Well, not to sound like a broken record, but I agree with both Wendell and Indy. I am a bit at a disadvantage, because I don't import or scan to a chart. Are you using twain. I am probably showing my ignorance there as well.

I am not sure, but along the same lines as Wendell, I would be willing to bet that the problem is occurring at the very moment you finish scanning. In other words, I doubt you have scanned a document into patient 1003, and there is now a folder in the ImportItems folder with the name 1003 with a PDF in it. I just don't see how you could have that with a link to the Imported Items section in the chart and then lose the file or the link.

I would make a shortcut to the ImportItems folder on your desktop. Then after each scan check the folder immediately to see the subfolder with the patient's ID number and look in it for the PDF.

I am a little confused when you say the subtitle is there. Do you mean, when you look in the chart under Imported Items, you see a named folder or an icon for a PDF.

Make sure you check your permissions carefully to see that the scanner has full access to the folder.

You say that you can't do anymore scanning. I don't see why you can't. Simply scan to the desktop or wherever where AC is (doesn't have to be -- but it may be easier that way), and then manually import the file into the patient chart.

Which also brings up given that you are new to this, have you done a few manual imports? Clicked on import, browsed to a file, given it a subject and name, etc. Have you then seen the file there and been able to open it from there?

Finally, as Indy points out, any backups? Are you using AC's backup and including the imported items heaven forbid? And, in these troubleshooting situations, it helps to know more about the network, what clients, what is your server, P2P, etc.

Thank you DoctorWAW, Indy & Bert for your suggestions.

Let me update you and answer some of your questions. After spending another couple of hours on the phone with tech support, we made some progress.

We confirmed that there were indeed pdf's in (some of) the import folders.

We scanned a dummy document into a test file. Viewed it in AC and in the test patient's importitems folder. The PDF was still there the next day.

The tech support (TS) guy had previously helped me relax all restrictions in Kaspersky (anti-virus/firewall). However, when we looked at Kaspersky's logs we saw that Kaspersky was not allowing one AC file to run: xadb8.ocx. No idea what that file does. We gave it permission to run.

Lots of missing data. On 7/8/10 I ran the "Imported Items: Repair Missing Files & Links" utility, found under Administrator's Options, Tools. It gave me two and a half pages of missing PDFs, associated by patient ID and telling us the subject of our missing scanned data. The report in and of itself is very helpful, since it helps us identify what was lost. I was puzzled, however, by the report's name "Repair". Files and links were eliminated--which is not how I conceptualize repair. I think of it as re-establishing linkages, restoring files, etc. This utility also helped to eliminate the error messages that took us 5-7 clicks to get out of when trying to view the imported files in AC that were there, yet weren't there. So, we now have many patient ID's with empty import folders.

Now, here's the kicker: When examining some of the patient files for the imported files, we discovered that some files had somehow overlayed other files. So, for example, let's say that in the import items folder there are four files. PDF1, PDF2, PDF3, & PDF4. When we look at the the patient's record in AC, we see six items. There's PDF1, whose subject corresponds to what we see in PDF1. However, in AC there appears two PDF files, each labled something else (say Prescriptions with a date, and Colonoscopy report with a date), but instead of two different PDF's PDF2 & PDF3, the Colonoscopy report and Prescriptions both show PDF2, which is the Prescriptions. The Colonoscopy report is nowhere to be found. PDF3 may correctly represent itself, but PDF4 may be duplicated in AC. It may appear as a Referral from a particular doctor. PDF4 shows up named Referral. The items were scanned in once. How they got mixed up is unknown. The tech support guy says he's never seen anything like it.

The implications, however, are clear: we'll only find out, by careful examination, whether the documents we expect to see actually correspond to the headings in AC. We don't know how many patient records are affected. And we don't know what caused it to happen. And, we, therefore, don't know how to prevent it from happening again.

The TS checked the folder permissions, etc. which seemed to check out OK. The scanner is off the network (to eliminate one set of potential problems--which did't seem to be the issue anyway) and is directly connected to the main computer. We are using the twain driver which came with the Brother MFC (which does not seem to be the issue). Kaspersky is set to let every AC program, file, etc. do its thing.

The only thing the TS guy had to say was to see if we could change the numbering scheme that the scanner software uses. The same name 00000001.pdf is repeated in every patient's import folder. It will then increment the number to 00000002.pdf if it finds a x1.pdf (x standing for the 7 leading 0's). Most scanners, he said, give every document scanned a unique number. Perhaps, he suggested, the new pdf is not always upped from x1.pdf to x2.pdf and therefore x1.pdf is overwriting an existing x1.pdf. Possible? Maybe. But why so randomly? And it doesn't really account for files duplicated under different subject names in AC.

He suggested that I look into the scanner documentation to find a way to have each document given a unique number. I've looked, but I haven't found any such option. I suspect it will need a switch thrown in the registry--which I know enough about not to fool around with. If I persue this line of attack, it means another call to tech support and another few hours on the phone.

I hope that gives you a more complete picture of the problem. I know that this may be a bit difficult to follow, but I'm hoping that one of you (or other forum members) has come across some of these scanning, data base pointers/linkages, etc. issues that can offer us some insights that will give us a better handle on how to deal with these problems.

Thanks.

Mory (on behalf of Dr. Pearl)

Update on Scanning problem:

We discovered that on the main computer, there were two Amazing Charts setups, each with its associated data files--including the ImportItems directory. One AC setup was in the root directory; the other was in the Progam Files directory. The computer was sending (I don't know by what criteria) scanned items into patient files into one directory or the other.

These items could not be seen by some of the other computers in our office, or even by the main computer. It's only when I went into Windows Explorer could I see the double set up.

If we try to merge the two ImportItems directories (and I don't know what software we'd need to accomplish a merger), I fear that some data will get overlaid. Some of the earlier, originally scanned documents were destroyed. The file created by AC for an individual patient, for example, might contain an item named (by Amazing Charts--not the scanner software, as we originally thought) 00000001.pdf. The same patient may have a file in the other ImportItems directory and have a similarly named item 00000001.pdf--but it will be a completely different item; from a different visit.

I'm not sure I even know which data-base has being backed up these past few months...

I've been working with Mark, from AC support, on and off during the past few months. I hope we can nail this down soon. Not being able to scan in documents is a real drawback.

Any suggestions?

Mory