Electronic Medical Records Conversion Seattle / Bellevue
Since 1994 Modus Technology, Inc has been a resource for electronic medical records (EMR) scanning, archiving and conversion services. We can scan your patient charts and upload them in to your existing Electronic Medical Record software so that no new software is needed, or we can upload your data to ModusWebMD secure online document repository for fast, secure, 24/7 access to your records from anywhere you have internet access.
Electronic medical records conversion can transform medical practice by capturing patient charts in an electronic form. Unlike paper charts, practitioners can access electronic medical charts with utmost ease, by clicking a mouse (or touching their PDA). Whereas they had to wait for the paper chart earlier, now the chart is available to them instantly.
The patient medical chart is the key document in healthcare. It communicates the specific information that doctors need. Even if the patient moves to another city the patient's electronic medical chart can be accessible by doctors there over the Internet.
Lab results can also be scanned immediately into an electronic medical record, and made available within hours to doctors. Even if the results are stored in another hospital, doctors can access it by dialing to the hospital.
Electronic medical records are much easier to transport between locations. Paper medical charts and lab results have to be physically moved around. Doctors have to make a request for the medical documents and then wait while it's being located and transported.
Lost charts are a frequent problem when large numbers of paper-based charts have to be managed. Frequent retrievals and transportation could not only increase the risks of loss but also damage the records. Even otherwise, legibility is typically a problem.
E-Prescibing, where a doctor uses a PDA to check drug databases and make an electronic prescription can solve the legibility problem. Electronic medical document imaging solutions often come with e-prescribing solutions also.
How Medical Document Imaging Reduces Costs
Paper-based charts require storage equipment and space. Dedicated staff are needed to attend to the paper-handling, filing, maintenance, and retrieval tasks. The problem is compounded because charts can be misplaced or lost and time might be spent on fruitless search.
Where the chart has to be sent to another location, courier charges are incurred, as against the Internet access possible to electronic medical records from anywhere.
Even within the same practice, the records can be accessed from any of the networked hospitals, clinics, or even from the homes of practitioners.
In a computer-based system, the paper charts and reports can be shredded once they've been captured by the medical document imaging system.
Conclusion
Electronic Medical document imaging has many advantages. Patient charts and lab reports are scanned into the system, which can then be accessed by doctors from their workstations, or transmitted to distant hospitals if needed. Costs are reduced because paper handling and storage requirements are eliminated or minimized. Security and confidentiality are improved through more effective access control.
What is HIPAA and what does it mean to be compliant to
this standard?
HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It is designed to standardize the industry on specific code sets and formats. Insurance payers, clearinghouses, and billing services have been spending enormous amounts of time and money to implement this regulation. The enforcement is handled by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights and is meant to be self-funding via the fines levied. In addition to standardizing the code sets and electronic frameworks, the law also established a minimum requirement for the protection and privacy of Personal Health Information (PHI). The specific parts of the regulation related to PHI include:
• Regulation: §164.530 (c) Administrative Safeguard of PHI
• Regulation: §164.530 (c) Technical Safeguards of PHI
• Regulation: §164.530 (c) Physical Safeguards for PHI
• Regulation: §164.530 (i) Policies and Procedures
• 42 U.S.C. §1320d-2(d)(2) requires entities that maintain or transmit health information to “maintain reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards”
How to benefit from the $19B healthcare IT giveaway
