Document Scanning Blog

A surprising and somewhat dismaying fact is that even in 2009, an alarming number of hospitals and private medical practices are mired in antiquated and often (sometimes tragically) dangerous methods of medical record storage: methods that for all intents and purposes are indistinguishable from the medical document storage practices of eighteenth century physicians. Ironically, many of these same medical practices regularly utilize cutting edge diagnostic and treatment technologies that didn’t even exist last year but somehow that same forward thinking approach to quality healthcare is absent when it comes to tracking their patients’ medical records. Why? It is difficult to say. Perhaps some healthcare providers are unaware of the new technologies involved in medical records scanning even though the “new” technologies have existed for years. Or perhaps they are aware that the digital document imaging industry exists but they are unaware of the fact that it is a substantially more secure way to store and maintain medical records. (Some healthcare providers are even under the false impression that paper records are superior to online document storage with regard to physical damage caused by fire, flood, theft, spills, misplacement, and privacy. The truth, however, is quite the opposite). Other medical practices are concerned about the cost of digitized document storage. But the fact is that the costs involved with paper storage far surpass those of digital storage and document scanning. Perhaps the biggest cost savings involved in making the switch to digitized medical record keeping is directly connected to the time wasted searching for and maintaining paper records in contrast to the simple click of a mouse needed to retrieve digitized records. Another rationale for some medical practices’ reliance upon paper records is quite similar to the explanation given by the last generation of bookkeepers that wouldn’t (or couldn’t) make the transition from paper balance sheets to computerized accounting programs: they were locked into their old ways of doing things. And now they are retired or otherwise out of a job. Similarly, some doctors are creatures of habit afraid of making the change to digital document imaging just because it is new. But as those same doctors ought to know, indeed change can be difficult but alas, it can be good for you too. Contacting a reliable and helpful document scanning company such as scantronix will aide healthcare professionals in taking the first step toward efficiency and reliability.

Picture this: You are in charge of mid-sized law firm’s legal library. You manage an archive of legal documents and memoranda so vast that you appear more like a museum curator than an employee at a law practice. (Not an unusual description of most law libraries, by the way). And all of the time, document storage space, and money that you spend in managing that library has become a significant problem. So what is the fix? Thankfully, these days a digital conversion, wherein the majority of your legal paper is transmitted through digital document imaging to a digital platform, will usually do the trick. But not so long ago, in the days before OCR service (optical character recognition), if you ran a business, non-profit or an archive and you wanted to convert certain simple text-heavy paper documents to a safer, more efficient and cost effective digital platform, you would have been, well, swimming in a world of paper. In other words, you would have been stuck and out of luck. Fortunately, today that is no longer the case. But what is optical character recognition scanning, anyway? Well, to put it simply, OCR is a method of document scanning and converting “image files” (IE pictures of text such as “TIFFs” and “PDFs”) into editable documents that are text searchable. (IE “SPDFs and “.DOCs”). In other words, optical character recognition technology turns practically useless picture of documents into functionally workable documents that can be opened and edited on most word processing, desktop publishing and editing software. Revolutionary as OCR service technology has been, it has its risks as well. Most notably is the fact that no OCR transition is perfect. Typically, OCR transitions work best when the source material to be converted is simple (EG Times Roman or Courier font), clean, large (12 point or higher) black text against a white background. But the bottom line is that if maintaining the accuracy of your data in conversion is particularly important to you, you need to work with an experienced OCR document scanning company that takes additional steps to ensure that the new digital copies will be as close to the originals as possible.

We had a thriving family business. We were on a first name basis with most of our customers, our employees were treated like family, and even our suppliers could come and go behind the counter as they pleased. We ran our business on trust and good will. Of course, that was in 1956. We didn’t feel need to take measures to protect our information. And of course, technology such as digital document imaging and OCR scanning services could not have been imagined even. In 2009, however, regrettably, a business simply cannot operate like it did in the glory days without risking the safety and security of your workforce, your clients, and your confidential financial information. To say that business data can contain sensitive information is a huge understatement. Indeed, the document storage maintained by businesses and non-profit organizations of all sizes can have life wrecking consequences if stolen or placed in the wrong hands. This is why it is imperative for any serious entrepreneur to make data security and secure document storage a top priority. Moreover, the need for professional document destruction services as well as secure document storage has grown more and more urgent. Question: Why do I need a document destruction company to dispose of my company’s records when I have a perfectly good paper shredder? Answer: No you don’t. The truth is that paper shredders are to data thieves as car alarms are to car thieves. They are ridiculously ineffective when it comes to stopping or even discouraging a motivated thief who wants what you have. At this day and age we have the technology to cease relying on vulnerable paper documents as high speed scanning of documents is readily available to businesses. Data and identity theft is a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. And it is still growing. If you are running a business, it is your responsibility to keep that growth away from you, your employees, and your clientele. Employing the expertise of a document scanning company may help protect you and your customers from these dangers.