by C. Roy Payne

Even in today's challenging economic times, businesses continue to turn to document imaging to improve data management, ensure regulatory compliance, streamline business processes, protect information assets, improve worker productivity, and a slew of other reasons that directly affect the bottom line. But although the benefits are numerous and the ROI is very real, it's prudent today to consider the expense of installing a full-featured document management system.

When the ultimate goal is to eliminate paper by converting it into electronic images and data - especially to populate existing systems - it often makes sense for companies to bypass the installation of new imaging hardware and software and go straight to the scanning task. This can be done by outsourcing the conversion of paper documents, thereby achieving the benefits of obtaining electronic information without acquiring additional hardware and software expenses.

In the healthcare industry, electronic medical records have the potential to save money, improve clinical care and provide answers to important research questions. But scanning hundreds or even thousands of existing patient records from their original paper form into electronic form, thereby creating computer-usable EMRs, can be a daunting task. Take into consideration the staff required to perform this task on scanners that take up office space and cost money. A robust document imaging solution with high-speed production scanners may be the answer for many health care providers. But even those organizations that don't have the means, budget or desire to implement a full solution at this time can immediately begin benefiting from EMRs by outsourcing the document conversion project. No additional staff and no equipment necessary.

Paper reduction and the electronification of paper-based information is a good idea in any economy for any business in any industry. How you get there is the decision at hand.

For the past 12 years, we have specialized in delivering technology solutions for document capture, content management, business process management, records management, etc. At the same time, we have been offering document and microfilm conversion services through our service bureau. Oftentimes, we install a document management system for a client and then help them convert back files and begin populating the system right away; this eliminates their need to increase headcount to accomplish the back file conversion and frees up staff to focus solely on day-forward scanning. Other times, customers turn to us only when they experience spikes in their paper volume, exceeding their in-house scanning capabilities. For those customers who do not want to maintain any scanning equipment onsite, we are their entire scanning operation.

Our services include ...

• Scanning and indexing paper records, forms, catalogs and other documents.
• Delivering images to any existing software package* (or we can provide one).
• Advanced data capture including OCR, ICR, OMR and barcodes.
• Exporting to any index file format.
• Exporting to TIFF, JPG and PDF image formats.
• Handfed scanners for delicate or non-standard paper.
• Microfilm and microfiche conversion.
• Portable CD/DVD archives.
• Online image hosting with browser-based viewing capabilities.

* ApplicationXtender, OnBase, FileNet, FileBound, Industry-Specific Applications, and Many Others

Whatever your document management needs, and whether you choose onsite or outsourced scanning, AccuImage has a solution for you. Contact me to schedule a consultation today.

Best regards,
C. Roy Payne
roy.payne@accuimagellc.com

Many of the documents AccuImage converts to digital images are standard black-and-white business documents and forms. But that certainly isn't all the AccuImage service bureau sees.

Pearl Corporation

Take, for example, a project recently completed for Pearl Corporation, maker of drums and other percussion instruments. Every year, Pearl issues a catalog of their available products. The company keeps an archive of these catalogs on hand, but until now, the catalogs haven't been available for viewing by the public. That is about to change, though, as Pearl is creating a web site that will allow visitors to view catalogs online and eventually download the PDF versions.

Gene Okamoto, drum and percussion product manager at Pearl, is in charge of the project designed to let visitors learn more about Pearl's past. "It lets people see what a rich history we have," explains Okamoto. It also helps percussion enthusiasts track down information on vintage equipment. "We often get requests from customers and dealers who have something from Pearl and want to know what it is. This project will let them search for themselves."

Okamoto explains the web site is not only intended for Pearl customers but company employees as well. "People within the company are very excited because most of them have never seen the entire archive." Okamoto believes presenting Pearl's history is critical to marketing the company's future. Making archive catalogs available for download will create a greater interest in the Pearl brand. "And we'll certainly trump everyone else in the industry," says Okamoto, referring to the availability of past catalogs online.

The hard-copy catalogs, which date back to 1964, were scanned in the AccuImage service bureau on color scanners and returned to Pearl as high-resolution JPG images. "We're very happy with the quality of images provided by AccuImage," says Okamoto.

The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County

The Nashville metropolitan area, which includes Davidson County, Tenn., has been recognized as one of America's best cities by Forbes, Fortune and other influential organizations. The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro Nashville), which employs more than 20,000 people, maintains high marks for fostering business development and livability by controlling costs while expanding services to its nearly 600,000 residents. Technology is the centerpiece of Metro Nashville's continued strategy to increase operational efficiencies.

In 2002, Metro Nashville contracted with AccuImage to address their document management needs, the result of which was the development and deployment of a robust electronic document management system (EDMS) that has since revolutionized the way the government's 54 departments work and collaborate with each other. Over the past six years, AccuImage has provided document conversion services to help Metro Nashville populate their EDMS. A variety of documents have passed through the AccuImage service bureau for conversion into images.

For example ...

• AccuImage performed a back file conversion by imaging all of Metro Nashville's beneficiaries' records and personnel records for the human resources department. Patch code sheets were used to differentiate the different document types. The data entry operators simply entered the ID number for each employee. The number was then used to look up the rest of the employee's information from an external database.

• AccuImage also scanned nearly 225,000 of Metro Nashville's Water and Sewer permit cards. Water Services had been using a Lectriever, which is a mechanical, vertical storage device that rotates and accommodates the storage of files in one area rather than in multiple file cabinets. This Lectriever was full of permit cards and was constantly in need of service. By imaging the permit cards through AccuImage's service bureau, the Lectriever machine was eliminated, saving maintenance costs.

Outsourcing ... holds down costs if performance and operational quality can be guaranteed.

Outsourcing continues to be a strategic consideration for more and more business applications. The obvious reason for this is because organizations - any size, any industry, for profit or nonprofit, etc. - will employ proven methods to hold down costs if performance and operational quality can be guaranteed.

Outsourcing continues, however, to stimulate controversy. Discussing the controversy (which mostly stems from overseas outsourcing) merits an entire article unto itself, but I will remind those who have concerns with outsourcing that it has been around since the beginning of time. It is common to store records with a commercial records center and to use a microfilm service bureau. And who has not hired a records consultant? Many companies have had their security, travel, and interior and exterior landscaping outsourced for years. Outsourcing, whether it is onsite or offsite, domestic or foreign, is outsourcing.

As we move toward more technology-driven operations, more applications for outsourcing are emerging. One application in particular is in the area of document imaging. Document imaging projects involve a healthy variety of considerations and challenges, and for these reasons, outsourcing lends itself well to moving forward with such an undertaking. Unless an organization has available in-house resources and expertise and can secure both for the duration of an imaging project, outsourcing provides a timely and potentially cost-effective answer.

Outsourcing a document imaging project has its own set of considerations and challenges. Following are some suggestions for developing an effective, high-quality outsourcing arrangement for document conversion services through various processes, which include:

• Picking up and delivering files.
• Preparing documents.
• Microfilming and/or scanning documents.
• Indexing the document images.
• Checking or validating the images.
• Loading the images into an organization's document management system.

Prerequisites for Outsourcing

In starting any project, there are always prerequisites. These "pre-steps" are often overlooked or not given an adequate amount of time and energy. They require solid business planning and clear-cut objectives. The prerequisites include:

• Business planning.
• Feasibility assessment.
• Service specifications and development team.
• Terms and conditions for outsourcing.

Elements of the Service Specification

Service specifications for document conversion and indexing services can be numerous and involved, and generally focus on two categories: business-related and technology-specific.

The general business elements are defined as the application and support-related portions of the outsourcing arrangements. These include the statement of purpose and intent, document security and confidentiality information, problem resolution, and project management structure.

The technology-specific considerations relate to the technologies employed, such as electronic imaging and/or microfilming. Some of the considerations include organizing the scanning and indexing flow, and storing and indexing for future retrieval.

Planning to Convert Your Documents into Electronic Images?

AccuImage can help! Call 615.242.7226 for a consultation.

[Source: ARMA]

Outsourcing can be as simple as sending a scanning project to a local imaging company.

There are many types of projects that can be outsourced, including ...

• Document Scanning
• Data Entry
• Forms Processing
• Claims Processing
• Medical Records Conversion
• Online Document Hosting

The advantages of outsourcing include ...

• Lower Labor Costs
• Less Overhead
• Less Payroll Taxes
• Increased Efficiency
• Less Human Resources Issues
• Information Technology Savings

The disadvantages of outsourcing may include ...

• Less Direct Control Over Processes
• Negative Stigma (as a Result of Offshore Outsourcing)
• Changes in Processes may be More Difficult to Implement
• Concerns Over Compliance and Divulging Trade Secrets*

Many people shudder when they hear the term "outsourcing," immediately remembering a bad customer service experience. Not all outsourcing is bad. With some intelligent thought behind your outsourced project, huge dividends can be paid to your organization and its customers.

Outsourcing does not mean sending every business process to India or China. Outsourcing can be as simple as sending a scanning project to a local imaging company - like AccuImage. And doing so may help you save money, increase productivity and boost customer satisfaction.

One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing is being able to redirect valuable resources toward whatever it is your business does best. But costs cannot be measured in just dollars and cents. The "opportunity cost" must also be factored in. What does it really cost you to create or implement a new imaging system? Might that time or money be better spent on your real money-making processes? Are you great at data processing or document scanning? Did you really get into business to scan documents or supervise a data entry staff? Likely not, or perhaps you just don't have the time to learn how. Outsourcing business tasks that are not directly bringing cash into your business translates into opportunity and revenue gained.

* AccuImage maintains the highest levels of security to protect your data. We also maintain HIPAA compliance.

[Source: Precision]

Outsourcing the conversion of paper into electronic medical records provides many benefits.

The Problem

Can you identify with the following scenario? A 73-year-old cancer patient is referred into a regional cancer center for advanced treatment for prostate cancer. This patient lives 100 miles from the cancer center in a rural community. He has received ongoing treatment from a local community hospital, including lab testing and CT exams. The CT was done at a local imaging center. Now these records are needed by the regional cancer center's oncologists to continue treatment for the patient. The patient is feeble, and does not have good family support, so it is unlikely that the patient can be responsible for gathering his medical information for when he travels to the medical center. Therefore, the understaffed Radiation and Oncology department must contact the community hospital and imaging center to retrieve this patient's medical records. Phone calls are made, and both institutions promise to send the data.

When the patient arrives for his ongoing treatment, though, no one can locate these records. What happens now? The patient is sent back to his home 100 miles away? The exams are redone? Consider for a moment the stress for the patient, and the additional costs borne by the Rad-Onc department. Who is at fault here? The department administrators? The facilities who were supposed to (and promised to) send the data? What is the patient's view of the care he is receiving from the "big city" medical center?

The problem described here is focused on the ability for a clinical department to reliably access historical medical data for patients that have been referred into that department. If the patient regularly visits the same institution in which they are receiving treatment, all of their radiological, laboratory, pharmacy, etc. information should be accessible to the clinicians through the information systems or records departments that exist within the institution.

In a study of a department that sees over 100 patients per day, here are the stunning results:

1. Yearly costs associated with record access inefficiency: $72,000 per physician.
2. Yearly lost revenue: $21,600 per physician.
3. Yearly departmental inefficiency costs: $62,500.
4. Yearly costs for repeat imaging exams (non-reimbursed): $108,000.

This translates to an overall annual cost to this one clinical department of almost $550,000. There is little doubt that there are common pain-points that have been simply accepted as the "cost of patient care." But through outsourcing, these pain-points can be remedied.

When an institution utilizes an outsourced service to scan medical records, they are virtually guaranteed to see an increase in staff utilization and productivity, patient satisfaction, and revenue generation. At the same time, institutions can see a decrease in frustration and wasted time for clinicians, administrative staff and patients, unnecessary repeat studies and exams for patients, and "broken" appointments.

The Solution

Patient medical records are a valuable resource because of the information they contain. That information is only usable if it is correctly recorded in the first place, is regularly updated, and is easily accessible when it is needed. Information is essential to the delivery of high-quality evidence-based health care on a day-to-day basis. An effective records management strategy ensures that such information is properly managed and is available:

1. To support patient care and continuity of care.
2. To support sound administrative and managerial decision-making.
3. To meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Outsourcing the conversion of patient records into electronic medical records helps with ...

1. Converting back files of patient records into electronic format.
2. Implementing multi-site document management solutions.
3. Improving record-keeping.
4. Enabling information sharing among different offices and individuals.
5. Allowing records to be treated as both corporate assets and personal data.
6. Improving coordination between paper and electronic information.
7. Maintaining confidentiality and HIPAA compliance.

[Sources: eHealth, DCS]

AccuImage, LLC is a systems integrator that empowers their customers with solutions designed to gain the maximum value from their information at every point in the information lifecycle. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, AccuImage specializes in the design, installation and support of document and content management systems, forms processing solutions, and electronic workflow systems. The company offers hardware and software from leading companies - AnyDoc Software, Böwe Bell+Howell, Canon, Captaris, Captovation, EMC Documentum, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Kodak, Kofax, Panasonic, Plasmon and Verity - as well as consulting, document conversion and professional services.