January 21, 2011

Electronic health record systems – or EHR as they’re commonly known – are a hot topic in hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country these days.  Many of these organizations are beginning to establish meaningful EHR systems within their practices, capitalizing on federal incentives in the process. But still those who have implemented complete EHR systems are few and far between.  Consider the latest stats from the medical industry trade association HIMSS: Less than half of 1 percent of all U.S. hospitals have a complete EHR system.

So, what’s the hold up?   What’s holding hospitals and medical practices from implementing something that seems so straight forward and beneficial to all involved?

Much of the problem may stem from the complexities involved in getting reams of paper documents from historical patient records into the EHR system.  As they are designed, EHR systems are primarily databases – not document management systems – which make it a challenge for those operating them to input paper or scanned documents and ensure the right data is being captured.

Typically medical office or hospital administrative staff doesn’t have the level of document management expertise that may be needed to ensure proper entry of scanned paper records into the EHR system. They’ll need to make sure that the patient for each document can be easily identified, that color capture is done so that they can read hand-written notes on the scanned document, and they’ll need to make sure that documents are adequately compressed so the electronic files don’t burden their digital storage space and are easy to transfer via email for collaboration purposes.

What can make the process easier for the medical staff is finding a partner with document management expertise and establishing a process that will meet their unique needs for capturing paper-based and born digital medical records for the EHR system.  This process can be the development of what’s called a “production environment,” much like we’re doing here at LuraTech with DocYard, that helps simplify the workflow and ensures that all types of paper and electronic records can be easily integrated into an EHR system.  DocYard can also include a module for conversion to PDF/A that will ensure long-term accessibility and preservation of documents.

If you’re interested in learning about how to find an effective document management solution, and the simple steps it takes to build a customized production environment for the healthcare industry, please give me a call or email me at m.mckinney(at)luratech.com.  I’d also encourage you to take a look at an article I wrote last October for ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals magazine called “The Prescription for EHRs: Consider These Five Tips for Integrating Paper and Digital Documents into the EHR”.  The article offers some helpful hints that may be useful for medical professionals embarking on the launch of an EHR system.