How Does Medical Record Scanning and Storage Work?
Patient confidentiality is a top priority for medical facilities and medical providers. It not only protects the private details of a patient’s medical and personal history, but it is also essential in maintaining trust between doctor and patient.
Many medical facilities and medical providers still have paper copies of patient files and information. Some of these files may be easily or inadvertently accessed by unauthorized personnel or damaged due to a lack of secure storage. Over the past few years, to minimize these security risks, medical facilities and providers have been transferring old patient information from paper files to electronic medical records. Most medical organizations trust specialized companies to perform medical record scanning and storage for their old paper files.
What is an Electronic Medical Record?
Electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper medical chart and personal information. An EMR:
- It contains a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory and test results.
- Allows for a patient’s medical information available instantly and securely to an authorized user.
- Automates and streamlines care provider workflow.
- Allows access to evidence-based tools that providers can use to make decisions about a patient’s care.
While allowing for instant access to a patient’s medical chart by authorized users, an EMR is also a secure way of storing medical information in compliance with HIPAA.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Two key points of HIPAA are:
- It mandates industry-wide standards for health care information on electronic billing and other processes
- It requires the protection and confidential handling of protected health information.
Choose a HIPAA-compliant digitization service for your medical record scanning and storage. It’s the only way to guarantee that your patients’ records remain private and secure throughout the conversion process.
Setting Up the EMR
Scanning and digitizing years’ worth of patient files can be a daunting task. Many facilities and medical providers are opting to use a third party to outsource this task. Having the right company on your side to guide you through the process is key to a successful implementation and usage of the new EMR. The right company will provide onsite support to:
- Set up an appropriate electronic storage system (i.e. onsite servers or cloud-based server) for the electronic medical records.
- Organize patient files for medical records scanning.
- Scan patient’s medical record into the EMR.
- Help manage and maintain the EMR servers.
- Securely store or destroy old paper records.
Choose ERS for Reliable and Secure Medical Record Scanning and Storage
Electronic Restoration Services offers digitization services for many types of businesses and organizations. Call 866-CALL-ERS to discuss how our medical record scanning service will help move your files into the digital world. You can also complete our online contact form, and a member of our team will connect with you right away.
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