Throw Out Your Filing Cabinet: Going Paperless to Improve Your Patient Management
Retro. Old-school. Throwback. Vintage. These are great ways to describe redecorating your living space or changing up your wardrobe, but not so great when describing how your healthcare organization manages confidential files and patient records.
For that, there’s only one word you should want associated with your methods: paperless.
Going paperless means more than going digital. It means moving your company forward by utilizing a document management software (DMS) that will make processes more seamless, information more secure, and patient management more efficient.
Here are a few ways going paperless improves traditional methods of record-keeping:
1. Boosting security: Old-school filing cabinets just aren’t secure. They’re easy to break into, easy to destroy, and impossible to monitor.
On the other hand, a good DMS provides high-end security features, like 256-bit encryption, role-based user limitations to control who can access what information, and audit trails to track every user who touches or alters a document.
2. Cutting costs: Traditional record-keeping is a waste of time and money. From creating and sorting files to retrieving and updating them, the whole process slows down productivity.
Additionally, human error with files can potentially cost organizations big bucks in HIPAA fines and professional sanctions. By switching to a DMS, organizations can cut their spending on supplies, storage, and staffing wages (no more overtime in the file room) and better protect themselves from costly violations and fines.
3. Improving the care experience: Stressed, overworked doctors and nurses can’t provide the same level of care as those with manageable workloads. When healthcare professionals spend most of their time on paperwork and have less time to spend with patients, the care experience suffers.
However, a DMS eliminates the redundant paperwork that takes up so much of a healthcare professional’s day, reduces each person’s workload, and gives everyone the time to focus on creating a more personalized patient experience.
4. Increasing patient satisfaction: There’s nothing worse for a healthcare facility’s reputation than losing patient trust. And issues with paper filing systems — like lost, misplaced, damaged, or delayed medical records — can lead patients to question a provider’s competence. Because a DMS offers faster, more reliable, and more accurate document searching, retrieval, and sharing, patients will experience fewer health record mix-ups and be more satisfied with the service they receive.
Countless healthcare organizations, such as wellness consulting company Healthstrides Inc., have already benefited from making the switch to a DMS. Like other organizations, switching to a paperless system allowed Healthstrides to simplify its workflow, improve patient communication, and give staff more one-on-one time with clients. It also helped administrators reduce hard-copy clutter while staying in compliance with state and federal protected information regulations.
Old-school might be cool for music and movies, but it’s simply inefficient when it comes to record-keeping and patient management. The tools to better healthcare are out there; it’s time we all started using them.
Matt Peterson has been with eFileCabinet since 2007 and directs all areas of the corporation, including sales and marketing, finance, product development, and operations. He has successfully reorganized eFileCabinet’s business objectives, raised both Series A and Series B venture capital, and implemented turnaround strategies, transforming eFileCabinet from a small startup to a successful, profitable company in high-growth mode. Under Matt’s tenure, the company has been recognized by the Inc. 500/5000 as a two-year winner and as one of MWCN’s Utah 100 fastest-growing companies in 2013 and 2014.
