The transition from paper to electronic medical records is mandated by law. HITECH is the acronym for the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which was signed into Federal law in 2009. It has been the bane of existence for many health care providers. The change from paper to electronic records has turned out to be a lot more complicated than legislators anticipated. Medical document scanning services are needed to accomplish this mountainous task.
Hospitals and other health care facilities have enormous amounts of paper records from years past. The task to convert all these paper documents to electronic files is almost unimaginable. The job goes beyond passing documents through a scanner. People doing this work must have an appreciation of the filing system and how to name and save the electronic files. Unless there is an organized system, files cannot be retrieved.
Paper documents must be arranged systematically to be compatible with the electronic medical records software in current use by the health care facility. Protocols for how to name the electronic files and where to save them for later retrieval must be established. These steps are critical to having retrievable medical records.
Companies that provide services to scan documents are in demand. Especially hospitals and other large facilities have an unmanageable amount of paper documents. They need a service dedicated to relieving them of this administrative burden. Hospital administration does not have time to organize paper files, remove staples and paper clips, scan, save and shred all these files.
To be HIPAA compliant, health care providers and scanning companies need to be prepared to provide proof of the chain of custody for all the records they handle. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Neither the name nor the acronym give a clue as to the meaning and objectives of HIPAA. The Act was intended to safeguard the privacy of protected health information, also known as PHI.
After the documents have been scanned, there is still a mountain of paper to handle. Some facilities opt for storing the paper documents, which will be an ongoing expense. The other option is to securely shred the paper. Secure shredding is another service these companies provide. There is a long list of tasks associated with converting the paper documents to electronic files. There is nothing simple about this process.
Services to scan documents are necessary. The physician or hospital should not attempt to hire temporary workers and purchase their own equipment. Services have the skill set for thorough and secure execution of this mandate. Doctors and hospitals do not possess this required skills or equipment.
Hospitals and other health care facilities have enormous amounts of paper records from years past. The task to convert all these paper documents to electronic files is almost unimaginable. The job goes beyond passing documents through a scanner. People doing this work must have an appreciation of the filing system and how to name and save the electronic files. Unless there is an organized system, files cannot be retrieved.
Paper documents must be arranged systematically to be compatible with the electronic medical records software in current use by the health care facility. Protocols for how to name the electronic files and where to save them for later retrieval must be established. These steps are critical to having retrievable medical records.
Companies that provide services to scan documents are in demand. Especially hospitals and other large facilities have an unmanageable amount of paper documents. They need a service dedicated to relieving them of this administrative burden. Hospital administration does not have time to organize paper files, remove staples and paper clips, scan, save and shred all these files.
To be HIPAA compliant, health care providers and scanning companies need to be prepared to provide proof of the chain of custody for all the records they handle. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Neither the name nor the acronym give a clue as to the meaning and objectives of HIPAA. The Act was intended to safeguard the privacy of protected health information, also known as PHI.
After the documents have been scanned, there is still a mountain of paper to handle. Some facilities opt for storing the paper documents, which will be an ongoing expense. The other option is to securely shred the paper. Secure shredding is another service these companies provide. There is a long list of tasks associated with converting the paper documents to electronic files. There is nothing simple about this process.
Services to scan documents are necessary. The physician or hospital should not attempt to hire temporary workers and purchase their own equipment. Services have the skill set for thorough and secure execution of this mandate. Doctors and hospitals do not possess this required skills or equipment.
About the Author:
Loris F. Anders is an office management specialist focused on optimizing workflow processes in document management. If you would like to learn more about HIPAA compliant cloud paper services he recommends you check out www.docufree.com.