Scanning Articles - Document Scanning Companies of America

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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.

Receive a request	Travel to file storage area
Travel to the file storage area	Locate section, identify where the batch was originally located
Locate the appropriate section, identify and pull the file	File any new documents associated with the batch
Route file to the requisitioner	Re file in the folder/batch
Copy documentation requested	Travel back
Files returned

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.

Source U of Mass Medical Center Study

Scanned Files Are More Secure

BondedInsured

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

Typical Motivation for Starting Document Scanning Process.

Do you spend too much time retrieving records? Do some of your documents actually get lost? Files stored in a central location and that are reviewed periodically have a greater chance of being mis-filed or never refilled. The result is that it takes a great amount of time to find such files.
Do you need more immediate access to files? Is the amount of time it takes to retrieve a file from the file room simply too long? Do you need instant access to the files? Is immediate customer service becoming extremely important?
Do two or more people need access to your files at the same time?
Do your people traveling need to have access to your files?
Are you running out of space for the hard copy files? Are you looking at the costs of special filing systems, such as rolling files? Are you looking at the costs of acquiring more office space for file storage?
Do you feel a need to reduce your overall costs associated with storing, retrieving, refilling and the safety and security of your documents?
Are your files safe in their current storage location? Does your current storage methods comply with the various privacy laws such as HIPAA or GLB or Facta?
If you had a disaster such as a hurricane, flood or fire, are your current documents protected? Could you be back in business in a matter of days?