Electronic Health Records – Reducing Costs for Hospitals and Patients

Only about 1 in 10 hospitals nationwide have adopted even basic electronic record-keeping according to a study published in the March 25th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study researched the use of 32 different features of health information technology — including electronic patient histories, doctors' notes, lab and X-ray results, prescriptions, drug alerts and nursing orders. Only 1.5% reported having a comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) system in place in all clinical units. So what was the reason cited by 74% of the hospitals for not going digital?

As you may have guessed, the reason most were resistant to converting to electronic health records was cost. A majority of the healthcare industry shared the opinion that the cost of implementing an electronic health records program, converting massive amounts of paper-based documents and records to electronic form, and then categorizing and indexing them would carry too high a price tag and require too much time. But, what if there was a technology solution available that could reduce the costs associated with converting to electronic health records and make the transition quick and efficient, all while increasing patient data accuracy and availability? Read More »

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Relieve Electronic Redaction Headaches

With the massive amounts of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that U.S. Government and Military agencies receive weekly, what was once considered a simple process of electronic redaction has become a major headache for information officers and records managers throughout civilian and military agencies. Electronic redaction is the removal of sensitive content from electronic documents for safe, efficient distribution to an audience that is not qualified to see the complete content.

The problem that arises with the redaction of electronic documents is that electronic data has its own tricks. Unless proper measures are taken, the redacted data may not be 100% hidden. This occurs because the data still exists in the file even if you cannot see it. Simply opening an electronic document in Microsoft Word, drawing a black box overtop of the text, then converting the document to a PDF will not completely remove the data from the document. Read More »

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