Healthcare facilities need document scanning more so than many other industries. With the increase in regulatory mandates, compliance requirements, and transitions to electronic records, it’s become increasingly important for healthcare companies and facilities to improve their medical data storage capabilities. Document scanning can do that for you, and here’s several ways how.
Centralizing Data and Records
With the advent of more robust EHR systems, it’s possible you’re keying data from your paper records. Older records that have yet to become digital will sit in filing cabinets in one location.
If your organization spans across multiple facilities, then doctors and other healthcare personnel may not have immediate access to the records they need. Instead, they will have to put in a request for them, and wait.
If you have an online portal for patients to check their information, they won’t have access to their own data, which sits somewhere out of reach. In both cases, patients and personnel will have to work with incomplete data, which is not ideal for anybody involved.
Document scanning can help in this scenario in several ways:
- No need to key in records individually
- You can store the digital documents in a centralized location
- Immediate access to needed information
- Saves time on finding, pulling, copying, faxing, or mailing information
It's also far faster to email a scanned document, rather than faxing or mailing it when needed.
Better Organization and the Ability to Free Up Needed Space
Document scanning will move a lot of records and other documents onto a server. Many healthcare facilities have thousands of records taking up space. In some smaller practices, these records can literally become an physical encumbrance that makes moving around the office a problem. They can also take some time to search through and find the right documents when needed.
By scanning your medical data, you can free up space, and place the paper records elsewhere. You can send them to a dedicated medical data storage facility, or some other offsite document storage solution. The scanned documents will give you ease of access and various means of organization that makes viewing or retrieving them far less of a hassle.
More Control and Protection Over Your Documents and Data
Electronic documents come with various safety features paper documents do not. For example you can:
- password protect your documents in groups or individually
- control access to documents, and dictate who can or cannot see certain documents
- track changes within documents
- know who touches them at any time
In fact, some of these things represent parts of the ever-increasing compliance requirements healthcare organizations must deal with.
Scanning protects you in other ways as well. Your paper documents are not immune to accidents and acts of nature. If it’s your only copy, and it’s lost in a fire or flood, then it’s gone for good. At the very least, you can consider document scanning as a means to create backup copies of your files and records.
Save Time, Save Paper, Save Money, Increase Overall Efficiency
Just by scanning your documents, you will
- decrease the time it takes to access records;
- make accessing documents easier for everyone;
- not waste as much paper;
- allow staff to perform more efficiently;
- and give your patients easier access to their information.
All of these things and more come with document scanning. The list of ways it improves medical data storage complements your business, your compliance with regulations, and your customer service. There’s no reason not to consider implementing document scanning in your organization as soon as possible. You will likely see a major ROI over time for your efforts.