Monthly Spotlight: Going paperless – What you need to know about scanning charts

From our friends at BEI Networks, the Scan Man contributed this article about scanning medical charts:

As you take your practice paperless, you will be confronted with questions about what to do with all those paper charts.

For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that you already understand all of your legal responsibilities relative to the retention schedule for your charts.

Charts should be kept a minimum of several years after a patient’s last visit. There are only two ways to preserve charts – store the paper or scan and convert to digital charts. You can store paper charts on-site or with a reputable document storage company. It is very risky to store your charts at a self-storage facility or worse yet, in your basement. A reputable facility will have fire suppression systems and protection from water. Self-storage facilities go up in smoke regularly (Try a Google search for “self storage and fire”). The recent monsoon rains showed the vulnerability of home-based storage.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.beinetworks.com/newsletter/HealthcareIT_Update_9_2011.html