Health Information Technologies and Processes

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

When we've taken over practices like that, we don't back-scan automatically.  If/when that patient shows up in the future, we would pull it and scan it then, but not just scan everything, 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

Do you separate the record by scanning into separate document ID's, for example Office Notes, Consult Notes, Procedure, etc., or do you scan the complete record to one single document ID? 

Does this cause any confusion whenever retention is met?  The paper record would be destroyed for a particular year, some may be scanned in while others are likely not?

When we've taken over practices like that, we don't back-scan automatically.  If/when that patient shows up in the future, we would pull it and scan it then, but not just scan everything, 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

We don't break up the old chart like that.  It gets scanned together.  We found the time necessary to break it down wasn't worth the value of the data it was bringing to the clinicians by having it broken up in our EMR.

As for retention, once something is scanned, our Legal and Compliance departments deem the paper the copy, and what's in our EMR the original.  So once we scan that old chart, our policy is to keep scanned documents 60 days post scanning for audits and then shred it, 

Do you separate the record by scanning into separate document ID's, for example Office Notes, Consult Notes, Procedure, etc., or do you scan the complete record to one single document ID? 

Does this cause any confusion whenever retention is met?  The paper record would be destroyed for a particular year, some may be scanned in while others are likely not?

When we've taken over practices like that, we don't back-scan automatically.  If/when that patient shows up in the future, we would pull it and scan it then, but not just scan everything, 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help. 

When we've taken over practices like that, we don't back-scan automatically.  If/when that patient shows up in the future, we would pull it and scan it then, but not just scan everything, 

Hi Kathryn, 

I am interested in any insight you might have for workflow suggestions.  It seems you went through a similar scenario that I am experiencing.

A local (non-staff) provider will be retiring and I will take ownership of the practice's records.  The practice provided notice to their patients with a phone number to call should they be interested in assuming care with one of our on-staff providers.  The retiring provider had all paper records.  I am concerned with back scanning, as it can create confusion with where to locate the records and create duplicate information and lower the integrity of the record.  However, the patient's are spreading out throughout various practices within our entity who are located off-site.  The only feasible way I can determine to get the record to the provider's who are continuing care is to scan them to our EMR, possibly under external records.  Thoughts? 

Is anyone willing to share with me the policy, or process, you follow when physicians retire, or leave your organization, and have paper records and an EHR?  Particularly, in regard to the paper records.   

• Upon leaving, or retirement, do you allow the office to back scan any part of the paper record, prior to going electronic, into your EHR?
• If so, do you have a policy as to what they are allowed to scan, how far back can they go, where it is scanned, and how it is labeled within your EHR?
• What is your facility's retention period?

We currently do not encourage our physicians to back scan documents into our EHR as we feel it should not be used as a repository; however, I would like to get an idea if this is the industry norm. 

Thank you for your help.