Visioneer document scanner streamlines patient care delivery systems

Sep 2 2009

There is constant pressure in the healthcare industry to streamline patient care delivery systems that will function effectively under the real world constraints faced by public and private hospitals. Whether it is an admissions process, patient records or a doctor’s office environment, Visioneer scanners make short and easy work out of converting paper into digital documents. Many healthcare providers today have developed inefficient workflows to manage paper records and cope with inadequate or limiting technology. In his first press conference as President, Barack Obama stated, “We’ve got the most inefficient healthcare system imaginable. We’re still using paper; we’re still filing things in triplicate.”

Visioneer scanners fit on any desk and they can quickly convert paper documents into searchable PDF files that are readily shared, organized and protected. “Anyone who has a filing cabinet will immediately discover the benefit of making a small investment in a document scanner,” said John Capurso, vice president of marketing at Visioneer. “The time saved alone in filing, searching and retrieving paper will pay back the investment in only a few months, making it virtually a no-risk purchase.”

Help Is On the Way

When President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) into law, increased pressure was put on doctors and hospitals to adopt a paperless healthcare solution. On August 20, 2009, Vice President Biden announced nearly $1.2 billion in grants to help hospitals transition to electronic medical records. During the press conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, “Electronic health records can help reduce medical errors, make healthcare more efficient and improve the quality of medical care for all Americans.”

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) portion of ARRA represents an investment of more than $19 billion towards healthcare IT related initiatives, including the development of standards and guidelines for electronic medical records (EMR). An electronic medical record is an individual patient's medical record in digital format that is capable of being shared throughout different health care settings.

Being Part of the Solution

The deployment of document scanners in their admissions process is a major step in the process to improve this inefficient system. Digitizing all incoming patient documents, authorizations and insurance ID cards assures they are captured accurately and securely, then electronically attached to the patient and/or accounting record. Through integration with today’s leading medical records and workflow software applications, Visioneer scanners enable the incoming paper process to be streamlined, more accurate and secure.

“Users marvel at the ease of use and reduced need to make paper copies of patient paperwork. Patients are admitted more quickly and the insurance cards or physician orders or lab results that they bring to the hospital are scanned and added to their EMR,” Capurso said. “Visioneer OneTouch technology allows users to scan to the ‘destination’ of their choice by pressing a single button, eliminating multiple steps in sending scanned documents to predetermined applications or devices. Advanced TWAIN and ISIS scanner drivers assure compatibility with any workflow or EMR system.”

Scanner buttons come pre-programmed to scan, e-mail or copy in searchable PDF file format, but the user can customize them to: scan to a forms processing application, an archive and retrieval location, a document distribution list, or a Business Process Management program.