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.
The skill set involved in converting paper documents to electronic goes way beyond the process of scanning documents. Paper medical records must be put into some organizational structure before the documents are scanned. Once scanned the electronic files must be appropriately and accurately named and saved for retrieval as needed. If all of these steps are not done systematically and correctly, all the effort put forth and the money spent will be for nothing.
The companies that provide these services must be qualified and trusted to securely perform the job. Someone has to take the time to remove staples and paper clips and organize the paper documents before they can be scanned. The patient records may include X rays, which also need to be converted to electronic.
The health care providers must maintain the chain of command of records in order to be compliant with HIPAA regulations. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is referred to as HIPAA. The purpose of HIPAA is to ensure the privacy of health information. Every time records change hands there is a risk of breaching this privacy.
After the hard copies have been converted to electronic files, the question of how to dispose of the paper documents still remains. Some physicians choose to store the paper documents, but that does present an ongoing expense. If the records are to be disposed of, this too must be in accordance with HIPAA. Secure shredding is another service offered by these companies.
The companies that provide scanning services are indispensable. Hospitals and other facilities are smart to outsource the work. The scanning companies will have employees trained to do the job correctly and in keeping with HIPAA and HITECH regulations.
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.
The skill set involved in converting paper documents to electronic goes way beyond the process of scanning documents. Paper medical records must be put into some organizational structure before the documents are scanned. Once scanned the electronic files must be appropriately and accurately named and saved for retrieval as needed. If all of these steps are not done systematically and correctly, all the effort put forth and the money spent will be for nothing.
The companies that provide these services must be qualified and trusted to securely perform the job. Someone has to take the time to remove staples and paper clips and organize the paper documents before they can be scanned. The patient records may include X rays, which also need to be converted to electronic.
The health care providers must maintain the chain of command of records in order to be compliant with HIPAA regulations. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is referred to as HIPAA. The purpose of HIPAA is to ensure the privacy of health information. Every time records change hands there is a risk of breaching this privacy.
After the hard copies have been converted to electronic files, the question of how to dispose of the paper documents still remains. Some physicians choose to store the paper documents, but that does present an ongoing expense. If the records are to be disposed of, this too must be in accordance with HIPAA. Secure shredding is another service offered by these companies.
The companies that provide scanning services are indispensable. Hospitals and other facilities are smart to outsource the work. The scanning companies will have employees trained to do the job correctly and in keeping with HIPAA and HITECH regulations.
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 Affordable EMR paper scanning management he recommends you check out www.docufree.com.
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