Document Scanning Companies of America

Document Scanning Saves Time and Money

Document Scanning can reduce your overall costs of document management in the following areas

• Document Retrieval
• Cost Associated with Lost Files
• Occupancy Costs

What Does It Cost to Retrieve a File

The University of Mass Medical Center published a study about various costs associated with storing and retrieving a file. It is referenced below. In the study, they identified five areas where the manual system affected costs.

1. The time it takes to retrieve a file takes too long. The slow retrieval time is reflected in delayed or lost income.

2. The manual system requires labor and space expense.

3. The manual system results in lost files

4. The manual system lacks the security requirements dictated by various laws

5. No back up exists of the manual files. This lack of backups to paper documents was brought to the fore front of the news during Hurricane Katrina. Lost medical files caused billions of dollars in expense associated with duplicating tests and trying to rebuild some sort of patient history.

What does Document Retrieval Require?

There are eleven steps all performed by a human being. There are eleven steps that can be done wrong. There are eleven steps that have to be paid for. There are eleven steps in which a document can be lost (misfiled or stolen) or a patient's private information could be compromised.

 There are eleven steps all performed by a human being. There are eleven steps that can be done wrong. There are eleven steps that have to be paid for. There are eleven steps in which a document can be lost (misfiled or stolen) or a patient's private information could be compromised.

Once a file is lost or stolen, the cost to replace the file can be huge. If medical tests need to be redone, the costs can be in the thousands. If a court case is lost because a loan or other legal agreement is lost, the costs can be huge

Document Scanning Can Reduce Space Requirements for On-Site Storage

Scanned files are retrieved online. Therefore they don't generally need to be on hand in the office. The space taken up by the files is sometimes large enough, such that the removal of the files allow you to either release some office space or grow without moving.

Lost and Misfiled Records are No Longer a Problem Once Your Files are Scanned.

Once a hardcopy file is checked out, then you have to reply on your personnel to actually return it the storage location and secondly, accurately re file it to the proper location. Lost files can be over 20% of the files checked out. There are some ways to reduce that percentage down to 2%, but those come with their own additional cost.

Scanning can Allow Multiple People to Have Simultaneous Access to a File

When a file is checked out, no one else can look at it. This can be a tremendous problem. Scanned documents allow for multiple people to have access to the file at the same time.

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Source U of Mass Medical Center Study

The benefit of document scanning to area businesses, hospitals, clinics, law firms and governmental agencies depends on the understanding of how to assign only those who are responsible with the access to the files. Where as in many cases, the entire office, outside contractors, custodians, etc had access to the paper files.

The pure number of people who have access to any given office leads to a similar number of people who are not authorized, but have access purely because the have access to the office.

For example, if the office is cleaned, the cleaning people have access to the files. Granted, file rooms can be off-limits to the cleaning staff. However, records that have been checked out, may be available to be compromised by virtue of not being protected by the person who checked out the files.  If there is a special employee who is responsible for retrieving requested files, that person consequently has access to the confidential records