EMR Scanning for Family Practices: In house or Outsourced

Medical practices are required by law to keep a patient's medical records that reflect a patient's evaluation and treatment. All medical records must be held for the duration of 10 years. Sometimes, obstetrical and pediatric records should be kept for a longer period of time. Eventually, a busy doctor's office can be consumed by mountains of records tucked into file cabinets, storage boxes and piled high into storage units. Without a good organizational system, the office staff can waste hours just retrieving records when there is a need to look at a patient's history.

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA was promulgated as a wake-up call for the Health Care industry. Its aim is to ensure the utmost protection, integrity and confidentiality of personal health information while improving the process of information networking through standardized systems. The act requires health care establishments to use a more systemized record management system in terms of handling, transferring and maintenance of patient files.

Documents must contain the individual's identifiable health information like:

1. Patient's name
2. Home and e-mail address
3. Birth date
4. Social Security number
5. Health plan number
6. And among others

Information deemed very private by every individual in the United States and potentially dangerous information if found in the wrong hands.

HIPAA and HITECH Compliance
It is not only the health care providers (like hospitals, clinics and individual practitioners) that should be in compliance to the Act. Health care clearinghouses as well as health management organizations, Insurance providers and their associates are accountable for the requirements. Failure to comply with the health care Act is considered professional misconduct that could be subject to administrative sanctions like stripping off a license to practice. Worse, even a partial disclosure of clinical records without the patient's permission would have serious complications and considered a form of medical malpractice.

Document Imaging Solutions
Medical establishments often resort to purchasing scanning equipment and hiring staff to digitize medical records as a full time job. There are risks of inexperience personnel that could directly affect the digital quality of the records. Outsourcing to EHR scanning services can give you an edge and cost-effective advantage. Partnering with a doc Management company in Philadelphia offers these benefits:

1. Saving a direct impact of payroll costs and benefits.
2. An assurance that patient privacy is well cared for and secure.
3. Avoiding costs of capital investments on scanning equipment
4. The need for updating hardware and software technology
5. High quality digital images

Ensuring the security and privacy of documents when converting medical files to EMR (electronic medical records) is not a guarantee when outsourcing to a document imaging company in Lancaster. Careful consideration of vendors is required and HIPAA compliant scanning certifications are only issued to companies that have received the proper training required. When looking for a service to convert medical files to EMR, make sure that and the EHR scanning service has been certified and maintains 24-hour security surveillance cameras in the production facility. Your scanned data and images must be delivered in the right format for transferring onto your records management platform. The most common format for EMR and ECM database upload are FTP and PDF. Be sure to choose a doc management service in Philadelphia that fits these criteria.