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Memphis and Shelby County Health Department solves immediate quality and storage problems, and prepares for future electronic records management

When you receive a subpoena to reproduce a medical record for court, you don’t waste time responding—especially because by law, you must produce the document within a short time frame. So imagine the anxiety you would feel if you had to search for the document on a microfilm system—inserting the reel, manually turning the reader. And picture going through all that and then discovering the printout was illegible. Not a productive day.

In contrast, imagine the confidence you would feel quickly searching your C: drive to retrieve the document and printing out a clear, high-quality copy in seconds.

Accumulating a backlog of medical records

The Memphis and Shelby County Health Department sees nearly 200,000 patients each year at 14 clinics throughout Shelby County and its Metropolitan Service Area. By law, each clinic is required to maintain the medical records for two years and be able to reproduce the records upon request by court order or subpoena, within a specific time frame. The files are purged every two years and sent to an off-site storage facility for a specified length of time. The exact amount of time depends upon a patient’s age and medical treatment provided.

Until 2006, the Health Department stored medical records on reels of microfilm, on-site, with backup copies in an off-site facility. Then its microfilm system broke down. And the Health Department accumulated a backlog of medical records waiting to be archived permanently. In the meantime, they stored hard copies in boxes, which took up significant amounts of storage space and made it time-consuming to retrieve records.

Improving the efficiency of medical records storage and retrieval

Rather than purchase another microfilm system, “We researched scanners that would meet our current archival needs and also position us for a future transition to Electronic Records Management,” says Dr. Judy Martin, Chief of Nursing, Memphis and Shelby County Department of Health.

In early 2007, Martin; Shawn McClure, Manager of Information Technology at the Health Department; and Christine Murrell, Office Manager of the Office of Nursing met with document imaging integrator Brad Moritz of Imaging Solutions and Services, Inc. (ISSI) in Memphis. The team identified the County’s archival and document scanning needs, and researched how a multi-phased approach could be used to move the County forward within the available budget. ISSI then hosted the County at their Mid-America Operations Center (a Kodak authorized Document Conversion Center) where the team was able to see a number of Kodak Scanners in operation.

“Our decision to go with the Kodak i780 Scanner was based on volume,” says McClure. “The KODAK i780 Scanner has the capability to quickly and efficiently store and produce our high volume of medical records.”

High-quality images eliminate a time consuming problem

The Health Department began using its new KODAK i780 Scanner in June 2008. “Ever since then, the clarity of archived images is so much better than it was before, regardless of the quality of the original,” says Murrell.

She adds, “Before, it was a real problem: I would receive a court order or subpoena for a medical record and would print it from microfilm, but sometimes had trouble reading it!”

This happened a lot, especially when the original document was printed on colored paper. Now, with the Kodak i780 Scanner, Murrell doesn’t worry about image quality.

“It’s been a major improvement,” she says. “The problem of illegible documents has been eliminated, and I no longer waste time reworking and recopying printouts.”

Martin adds, “We’ve increased productivity 100 to 150% since we began using the Kodak i780 Scanner. It cuts the work in half. And we gain time at every step of the process: we scan faster; we check for accuracy immediately; and the images are better quality, so there are fewer errors, and therefore, less repeated work.”

Space-savings, positive redundancy, and efficiency are key benefits

The Health Department currently uses its KODAK i780 Scanner only for archiving. In this application, the scanner saves space and time compared to storing hard copies in boxes, or manually filming and managing reels of microfilm. “You wouldn’t believe how many boxes we can store on one disc!” exclaims Murrell.

Another key benefit of the archival solution featuring the KODAK i780 Scanner is disaster protection. “Before, we stored two reels of microfilm—one at the Health Department Archives and one in an off-site facility several hundred miles from here. That’s just two copies.

“Now, with our KODAK i780 Scanner, we have multiple copies: one DVD right here in our Archives, server backup of our copies in the IT Department, DVD copies stored in a local facility ten miles away, and permanent storage in a facility several hundred miles away,” says McClure. “The redundancy of having data in multiple locations means we are no longer concerned about what would happen to our data in the event of a catastrophic event.”

Having backups on-site also makes it more efficient to retrieve data. “The information is accessible and easy to duplicate. We no longer have to request a document and have it shipped to us. We can produce high-quality images on site,” notes McClure.

Positioned for the 21st century

Currently, the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department uses its KODAK i780 Scanner to scan batches of documents and KODAK Capture Pro Software to output the data onto the Department’s document archive drive. In the near future, they will migrate the data into a database, and put it onto a server where it will be concurrently accessible to multiple authorized users.

McClure reiterates, “Our KODAK i780 Scanner is the critical first step towards Electronic Records Management. With this scanner, we are in a great position for the next step. And when we grow we won’t have to replace our scanner—the KODAK i780 Scanner’s expansion capabilities were a major selling point for us.”

Martin adds, “That’s why we selected the KODAK i780 Scanner in the first place: it meets our current need for efficient archival storage and improved image quality—and it also will meet our projected increase in volume and plan to implement a fully integrated Electronic Records Management System.”