It would seem logical that as physicians progressively automate their practices, implement EMR systems and over time become more effective users of those systems, that the administrative load on medical office staff should decrease. After all, more information is being communicated to those practices electronically in the form of bits and bytes. Instead of paper, lab results are delivered electronically into EMRs. The increased use of fax servers by hospitals, physician offices and diagnostic facilities allows faxes that were previously received as paper to be saved electronically, digitally renamed and attached to patient records. In addition, as more practices transition to EMRs, should there not be less demand overall for paper as the critical mass of users increase and become automated?
We are either getting closer to Nirvana with near paperless offices or creating (and maintaining) scanning sweatshops (see earlier article) in the medical office.
I hope that we are transitioning closer to becoming “paper-light” medical practices; however, I believe that there is still a significant amount of scanning and re-digitization that takes place in the majority of medical offices for the following three reasons:
- There is still a significant inflow of paper documentation including diagnostic and consultation reports, ancillary reports from physiotherapists and other care providers, legal documents, motor vehicle requests, WCB, insurance reports, hospital discharge summaries, and so on. These documents are nowhere close to being delivered in digital format in the forseeable future.
- Workflow and business practices in many medical offices that have adopted EMRs have not sigificantly changed since initial implementation in order to more effectively use the EMR to reduce paper generation. Workflow optimization is time consuming and hard work. It is difficult to change behaviours and apply consistent policies across small practices.
- The inability to transmit and receive referral requests and consultation reports electronically from medical office to medical office or transfer electronic copies of a patient record places medical practices in an untenable position. This virtually guarantees a large proportion of paper management in medical offices.
I may be wrong in this assumption, but I would like to invite your feedback. If you have been using an EMR in your practice, has the amount of scanning reduced since implementing your system, remained static, or actually increased? What is the most important change needed in order to decrease scanning in medical offices?
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