Jasele Oita's Blog A weblog about everything

In order to fully utilize a new EMR system and take advantage of the efficiency, accessibility, financial savings and patient safety benefits, the older medical billing and other records that are still recorded on paper need to be incorporated. Unfortunately, the process of digitally scanning these hard copies to convert them for use within the EMR system is often both time-consuming and expensive. The conversion must be done to stringent standards in order to ensure that the exact content is preserved. One of the problems that often occurs with conversion to electronic health records is the fact that the extensive handwritten records may not be legible after the conversion (or even before). Because the original records may be in a wide range of media types, formats, and sizes, the process of accurate conversion might be even more difficult. Of course, any hard copies that are destroyed after conversion must be handled in a manner that ensures the patient’s confidentiality.