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Situation Adventist Health System upgraded to an electronic medical records system to improve access to patient charts. Objective Input documentation into electronic medical records system quickly and efficiently—within 24 hours of patient discharge. Find one vendor able to deliver bestof-breed scanning technology for low- to high-volume scanning. Gain ability to continuously scan long paper formats and multiple thicknesses. Solution KODAK i1440, i610, i260, i280, i65 and i40 Scanners, EMC2 ApplicationXtender software, Kofax Ascent Capture software. Currently testing KODAK i1220 Scanners for implementation in 2008.

Martin Murphy’s jaw dropped when, in the middle of an Adventist Health System Information Systems team meeting, the door flew open and a folder was abruptly dropped in front of a physician. After the interruption, the physician explained he had requested the patient chart four hours earlier and—even though it was an emergency—it had taken the records department 240 minutes to locate and deliver the folder.

“I realized then that our upgrade to an electronic medical records system couldn’t come too soon!” says Murphy, Clinical Data Technical Manager, Adventist Health System. “With our new scanning and information management solution, that doctor would have reviewed the patient chart on his computer long before the meeting even started.”

One ideal supplier and scanner manufacturer

Until 2003, Adventist Health System—headquartered in Orlando, FL—relied on a paper-based filing system to manage medical records. The not-for-profit healthcare system, with over 45,000 employees, wanted to improve access to patient records at all of its 40 hospitals in 10 states. And when they transitioned to an electronic medical records system, the organization wanted to work with the best one-vendor solution for scanners.

“In my 20 years of experience with scanning, Kodak has always been tops in the highvolume scanner market. When we compared high-, mid- and low-volume scanners, Kodak turned out to be the best of breed in all categories,” notes Murphy.

Adventist Health System’s Information Systems team knew they would get a price break if they purchased all their scanners from one vendor. But beyond cost, the team wanted the benefit of a single source for service and support.

“It’s more convenient to work with one vendor,” says Murphy. “I only have one contact number and one contact person. And Kodak is such a large company that even in rural areas, the Kodak Service & Support technicians are less than 30 minutes away.”

“I have a great vendor relationship with our sales representative at Kodak,” adds Murphy. “Whether I’m in the suburbs of Chicago, or Kileen, Texas, or Orlando, I work with the same sales representative—Nancy Sherman—and she is great people.”

Departments improve customer service

After a year of planning, Adventist Health System’s Information Systems team deployed KODAK i40 Scanners in its Registration and Scheduling Departments, and KODAK i65, i260, i280, i610 and now i1440 Scanners in its Health Information Management (Medical Records) Departments.

The Registration and Scheduling Departments use i40 Scanners to scan physician orders, insurance cards, and driver’s licenses when patients register for service at the hospitals.

Before installing the KODAK i40 Scanners, an Adventist Health System representative would take the patient’s document and make a copy. Now the representative stays in front of the patient and scans the information at the desktop. This small change has greatly improved patient satisfaction at the point of registration.

Because all of the information is scanned at once at registration, including doctors’ orders, lab orders, service requests, and financial data, it is online and available to providers right away. Patients no longer walk around the hospital with slips requesting certain blood tests or imaging services. As a result, fewer orders are lost, and no one is wasting time searching for and re-entering orders.

Departments become more efficient

As patients are discharged from all areas of the hospital, their charts are brought to the Health Information Management Departments and scanned into the electronic records system.

KOFAX Ascent Capture software batches and indexes the documents and performs quality control checks that automatically correct orientation, delete blank pages, and ensure images are readable.

From there, EMC2 ApplicationXtender Software integrates the data into Adventist Health System’s Medical Records Image Engine for permanent storage.

All information in one place, available to all providers

“Today, all discreet information and paper documents—lab results, nursing documentation, physicians’ notes, progress reports—are in one place,” says Murphy.

“The efficiency improvement is huge for both doctors and patients. Now doctors can review and sign documents electronically online. Before, we had to find and pull the paper file from a folder, copy the page, and track down the physician to obtain a key signature.”

All charts are online, so doctors can have instant access without asking a third party to pull the documents. This reduces the opportunity for human error and provides information quickly.

Even better, more than one provider can view the information concurrently. For example, the Primary Care Physician on the first floor could be viewing a patient’s records online at the same time as the specialist on the fifth floor.

No more lost revenue

“Coding for billing is now done online right off physician orders,” Murphy notes. “Papers are no longer being passed from hand to hand, which means we minimize lost or mislaid records. We charge patients based on service, and now our Billing Department knows exactly how much to charge, so we aren’t losing revenue either.”

High quality, continuous feed, and multiple thicknesses

At Adventist Health System, operators scan approximately 100,000 pages per day of variable legibility, size, and shape. So they need the highest image quality possible. The scanned documents include thick driver’s licenses, scribbled physicians’ orders, complex ultrasounds, even 20-foot long fetal monitor strips.

“In Registration, our KODAK i40 Scanners allow us to scan documents with different thicknesses, like laminated driver’s licenses and insurance cards,” says Murphy. “In Health Information Management, we’re now replacing older model scanners with KODAK i1440 Scanners, which feature continuous feed scanning that allows us to scan fetal monitor strips up to 20 feet in length,” says Murphy. “Before, we would tape the pages together to create a fetal monitor strip, and then rip the strip apart a page at a time to store it in the patient’s file.”

Now, thanks to their i1440 Scanner, ripping, taping and other hassles are a thing of the past.

© Kodak, 2008. Kodak is a trademark of Kodak.