In this infographic, I make the case for scanned medical records as part of an integrated electronic patient records strategy. The numbers I have used (file sizes, sheet numbers) are for a typical medium to large NHS acute hospital. As part of a paperless strategy, scanning medical records brings the historical information into patients' electronic patient records. The process is now well established and modern electronic document records management systems have advanced search and annotation tools to simplify their use. The infographic can be downloaded from the link below.
For the pitfalls to avoid, see my previous blog, Digitising Medical Records: What the sales reps don't tell you.
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In his excellent article, ‘Where did I put that …… medical record?’, Jon Atkin explained the consequences of a lost or mislaid medical record. These can include delayed or incorrect treatment and repeated or unnecessary investigations. As this can directly or indirectly lead to significant harm that is wholly avoidable through the use of digitised medical records, is it time for NHS England to add mislaid medical records to the list of never events? There are many articles on the benefits of digitising medical records, and there is no doubt the benefits are real. They include medical records being available instantly to multiple users, reduced operating costs, released space, a complete audit trail of who has viewed every page, increased security and disaster recovery options. These benefits are well documented and I won’t expand on them here. But having led a medical records digitisation project from concept, through business case, procurement, deployment and eventual closure of the medical records library, my observation is that the literature does not explain just how tough a medical records digitisation project really is. Here are my thoughts on the challenges. |
Mark Magrath MBAI am a management consultant with 12 years experience as an executive director in an NHS Foundation Trust, including 10 years as Deputy Chief Executive. I only write blogs on projects and assignments that I have personally led. My aim is to write amazing content that combines real world experience with insightful advice. Categories
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August 2021
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