EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Scanning Documentation

Is anyone out there presently scanning service documentation for electronic storage?
If so do you discard (shread) the paper?
What are your protocols / procedures?
And finally Scanner specification?

Lots of questions..

Thoughts please

Das,

Here at Chester we do exactly that. Scanned in and then disposed of.

Nothing fancy on the scanner, HP with a hopper so that multi-page documents can be processed quickly. Parallel port, can be USB of course, does not matter. Cost £ 100 these days, very reasonable. We use Windows imaging, but any standard scanner comes with appropriate software.

We can OCR scan, if and when required.

Works extremely well, we have now thrown out five filing cabinets and removed countless storage shelves, etc.

Everyone can find what they need in a fraction of the time, more it around to the dB, finance, etc.

E-mail it, print out, etc.

Our protocols and procedures are just that, scan it and scrap it.

Do it, you will be amazed with the difference it makes.

Jim

Alternatively, if you don't have the staff to spend time scanning. Most Medical Records departments have contracts with companies that will scan your documents and present it back to you on a CD.

Have a word with your Medical Records dept as you may be able to tag on to their contract. The cost of using such a firm maybe cheaper than the cost of the persons time you get to do it.

With regards saving the scanned images, what format do you save to / in?
Would it be better to convert scanned images to pdf format to prevent tampering?

Chaps

Is this not a wee business opportunity for someone out there??? A CD/DVD copy of generic models of bioengineering kit. It would save us all a lot of effort.

Just thought about copy right!!

We can scan all our service reports internal and external contracts in EMAT database management system, it then automatically ataches it to the equipment number.

Automatic upload of all PAT test resluts including service history also happens via handheld organisers.

as Jim says, just a cheap scanner, nothing fancy, that is one of the benefits of using EMAT.

For PPM we use handheld module, no need to print service repor.ts

No need to worry about its format, not relevant.

alex

We don't use EMAT.
I query the format because if a document is scanned as say a bitmap or jpeg then it can be altered. With pdf documents can be protected, preventing even copying & pasting. I do like the idea of attaching reports to the Equipment number.

Das

We store scanned pages most generally as tiff.
Good quality, reasonable storage size.

Regarding pdf and tampering, you can down load from the internet programmes to split pdf files and alter them quite easily. So nothing is entirely tamper proof.

However, I would not anticipate any member of staff wanting to tamper. We are professionals and have nothing to hide.

The records which we keep are to help us in our business and management of medical devices. There is nothing sinister or untoward in what we do. I have no concerns here and others should not either.

Jim,

Thanks for your advice. I think this is the way we will go. I will do some testing to formalise the final protocol. The only reason for pdf is its' Ubiquitous nature.

Hello All,

Within E-MAT we provide the following functionality to facilitate the path to a paperless environment:-

• Individual Equipment items - Attach any PC file format e.g invoice details, warranty etc.
• Equipment Manuals - Attach any PC file format or link to the manual on the manufacturers website.
• PPM Description - When a PPM job is logged, Documentation relating to the PPM may be reviewed.
• Service History - Attach any PC file format e.g job sheet from an external contractor etc.
  - Signatures captured via PDA's (Palm or Pocket PC).
• Equipment Library - Images may be linked to models.
• Notices - Attach any PC file or Website address (URL) to a notice.
• Letters - Standard templates may be created for equipment sent to supplier, general supplier letters etc. These letters incorporate the rich functionality of MSWord and also mail merge fields (no requirement to complete Address details or equipment details each time as this is performed automatically).
  Letters may be stored and reviewed against:-
  - jobs
  - suppliers etc.
• Document Library - Allows you to store, sort and retrieve any general documentation i.e. policy documents for equipment library.

As mentioned previously in this thread, the above documentation is available instantly throughout the trust (security permitting).

I hope that you find the above informative and useful.

Paul.