Medical health records, files, and physical examination archives are essential for any hospital, doctor’s office, dental practice, veterinary practice, or any other patient-serving healthcare business. Easily and reliably pulling up folders with records on patient history makes it possible for medical professionals to provide smarter, superior, and more personalized care. Without medical charts, records, and other patient files, no medical practice would be able to survive as an effective business. But to properly use these documents, you need the right medical filing systems in place.
The Pros and Cons of Paper-Based Medical Filing Systems
Unfortunately, physical medical records, while they are essential for the healthcare industry, are a flawed form of documentation.
Many medical, dental, orthodontic, chiropractic, and veterinary practices are still using paper filing systems to preserve their patient information. Medical offices do this because all of the files are right there, stored away on shelves or in filing cabinets. For private health practitioners, this model can be ideal because they can easily walk over to a shelf and use an alphabetical organization system to find the patient file they need. It’s a low-tech model but a comfortable one for some healthcare professionals.
With that said, the drawbacks of paper-based filing systems far outweigh the benefits, especially in a healthcare environment. Here are a few reasons why:
Space
First of all, patient files, records, and folders take up a lot of space. The more patients you have, the more office space you are devoting to storing charts and medical histories. Some of those patients may only visit the office once in a great while. Others might only come one time and then move away or opt for a different practice. Still, those people and their files clog up your shelves and take up costly space in your practice.
File Confidentiality
Paper files can be a way of securely storing patient information if you use a locked file room or locked file cabinets to store them. But your files are only as secure as your storage method. Can you say for certain that your patient health information files will remain secure in case of a break-in? And what about when it comes time to dispose of old, out-of-date documents? You’ll probably have to hire a third-party company to destroy those sensitive patient files to ensure ongoing confidentiality.
Wasted Resources
Hiring a file destruction company isn’t the only extra expense you’ll face if you organize your medical files using a paper-based system. You’ll also drain resources on buying folders, tabs, office space, and paying for the paper and ink necessary to print out new charts or make copies. In practices or hospitals that see a lot of new patients every week, paper usage numbers can be staggering.
Organization Problems
Even if you’ve mastered the organizational workflow of your paper filing system, it still takes time to go into a filing cabinet and find a specific patient’s medical charts. In fast-paced healthcare practice environments, it’s also not unheard of for files to be misplaced, lost, or filed in the wrong place. Bottom line, organizing paper filing systems—not just in medical environments, but everywhere—tends to be convoluted at best and a complete mess at worst.
No Storage Redundancy
Perhaps the biggest problem with storing patient files in a paper-only format is how easily they can be destroyed and lost forever. If your office floods, catches fire, is hit by a hurricane or tornado, or suffers some other form of catastrophic damage, would you have any recourse of restoring patient files? Or would you have to deal with a double blow of a damaged office and lost patient information?
Readability
We’ve all heard jokes about doctors and their sloppy handwriting. While these jokes enforce a stereotype, the fact is that handwritten documents—any handwritten documents—are more difficult to read than typed or printed out text. Medical charts and other patient health records stored in paper filing storage systems are more likely to be handwritten, which can make it difficult for doctors, nurses, or other medical professionals to make sense of those files at a later date. This issue can impair a practice’s ability to provide high-quality care and can make it more difficult to claim defensible medical records in the case of a malpractice suit.
What a Switch to Digital File Management Can Do for a Medical Practice
The important question is how can hospitals and private healthcare practices improve their policies for filing and retaining customer information? Document management software (DMS) like eFileCabinet is the best bet. With DMS like eFileCabinet, it is possible to move all of your patient’s files into digital format. This process, while time-consuming (scanning paper files into the computer isn’t exactly short work), will help rectify each of the aforementioned drawbacks of paper filing storage systems.
DMS puts all of your files into a digital format, eliminating the need for you to store the records in file rooms or filing cabinets. Going paperless is likely the easiest way to free up space in your medical practice. You’ll also reduce your overhead by not having to spend so much on paper, folders, tabs, ink, toner, and other physical resources.
eFileCabinet’s document management software can also improve your file confidentiality, security, billing, and organization. The program has a text-based search function, making it easy and quick for you to find the specific patient file or medical chart you are looking for. With optical character recognition, you will even be able to run text searches on old paper files that you scan into the system. This DMS’s 256-bit document encryption has user-based access permissions. This means you can close off your patient files to prying eyes, while storage redundancy across numerous eFileCabinet servers ensures that you will never lose your files again.
Finally, by moving all of your medical files into digital format, you also ensure that the files are easier to read and understand. Removing handwriting from the equation promotes a more accurate understanding of a patient’s medical history.
Try Out eFileCabinet Today!
Are you interested in learning more about what the eFileCabinet DMS can do for your medical practice? Ditch the paper filing storage system and start using our software today! You can try out a free demo, just click the “Free Demo” tab on the screen, type in your information, and request a complimentary 15-minute preview of the eFileCabinet software.