Stats Explained: EMR Estimations for Clinicians

EMR Scanning estimation for clinicians:

It took us a solid 90 day work out to successfully finish Patient Medical Records(PRs), SCAN READY for Electronic Medical Record conversion.

A total of 26,871(PRs){1,078,547 pages} are prepped, indexed and scanned in to electronic files as specified by EMR software team. It took ~250GB of disk space at 300PDI resolution in Black & White. A total PRs shredded were ~33,300 pounds.

As explained earlier in the blog clearly, not all the PRs have ended up in the EMR systems. Only Active Pateint Charts were uploaded but inactive PRs(old) were loaded in to a local server for quick access. This has resulted in no paper records at the clinic. All the records are at a finger click reach for Dr.Mani.

 

PDF to TIFF conversion

1.Steps to create MDI/TIFF :

To install MDI, go to the Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs or Uninstall a program if you are using Vista.
Next scroll down to Microsoft Office 2007 (Professional, Standard, Home, , Plus, etc) and highlight it. You should see the Change button, so click on that.



Make sure Add/Remove Features is selected and then click on Continue.



Now expand Office Tools and click on the drop down menu next to Microsoft Office Document Imaging and select Run All From My Computer.



MDI will be installed onto your computer and you’ll see a new virtual printer called “Microsoft Office Document Image Writer” in the list of printers. You can now create MDI files and view them without a problem. Enjoy!

2.Steps to Convert PDF to TIFF:

First we need to install Microsoft Office Document Imaging into your system using the procedure given above.
Open a PDF file. Click on Print to print the file.



Now you will see a print window. Select Microsoft Office Document Image Writer from the list of printers. (Click on the properties to select the default folder for the output file to be saved). Click Ok to continue



Now you will have to save the file and the save as type format is Tagged Image File(*.TIF).



(*Contributed by Rajesh)

PDF vs TIFF: Assumptions and Facts

Scanning patient charts in to PDF or TIFF formats is an important aspect to figure out before one intends to pursue EMR. Even though PDF is widely renowned document format, EMR soft ware companies prefer/decide what format best suit their interests(storage space in the network played a key role in our case). 

From our experience, even though we scanned all the patient records in to PDF files, the EMR software company decided to accept only TIFF format(at 200DPI). It should be remembered that this format glitch might unfold itself in to a mishap in EMR scanning operation. 

TIFF and PDF formats are owned by ADOBE company. Most of the scanners are compatible with PDF and TIFF formats. 

There is a problem though! 

PDF is ideal for document files (A scrolling function is often very practical). Where as, a TIFF is meant for Image files (Normally you dont see a multi-page TIFF file). Our EMR support asked for a TIFF file which can incorporate numerous pages ~ to a PDF file. 

Most of the softwares (ADOBE Pro, 3rd party converters, etc.) convert a PDF file with 10 pages in to single page - 10 TIFF files, which is cumbersome to integrate in to EMR systems. Because you need to have a standard naming convention for the files you want to upload in to your software.

We have decided to upload only Active patient charts  in to EMR system. We managed to scan 7,200 patient charts in a matter of 20 days with out causing interruption/inconvenience to the clinic. Our solution paid off finally. We used to pick up 40 boxes(each box contain 30 patient charts) each day and used to return them back the next day for clinic use. Literally we had to split out the team in to two shifts(Day & Night) pushing the scanners to work almost 24 hrs a day. These 7,200 PDF files are converted to TIFF files in 220 hrs.

I would share the PDF to TIFF format conversion procedure in a different post soon. Its a simple function which costs you nothing.