Make room for the growing number of active and new files:

 Pulling inactive and semi-active files records from open shelf, mobile storage units; boxes in backrooms or offsite.

 Going electronic; install and staff your own document scanners, with maintenance programs and support services.

 Employ a reliable, expert service bureau to convert the files and import them into an electronic medical record (EMR) system

 Invest in document scanners, capture software and maintenance contracts to capture and convert the volumes; then when caught up, having too many scanners no longer paying their way;  complex, labor-intensive, and expensive capture challenge. 

Rationale:

 Improved patient care delivery; regulatory compliance; fast, efficient record access by clinical, coding, and billing staff.   However; the record becomes the legal patient record, and an array of problems arise:       

 Issues with scanned image quality and questions about whether the entire record was captured.

Is the indexing appropriate to provide the desired clinical, coding, and billing efficiencies; and quick access and research?

  Staff preoccupied with other responsibilities

 Document preparation (requiring a high ratio of prep staff to scanning personnel).

 Separator sheets requiring bar-coding  to separate one patient record from another and to index forms within the record

 The oversimplified assumption that all forms within the patient record can be easily redesignated with bar codes.

 Most departments don’t trust their “bargain” scanners; double feeds lose patient information from the record forever.

 Hand counting documents/pages in the record; the counts then have to be verified

 Extra staff to find discrepancies in the count, as well as to identify image quality problems.

Quality checks are necessary, including carbon copies with light or hard-to-read copy, or documents printed with color backgrounds.

 Skewed documents; double feeds, and poor image quality lead to rescans, as much as $3 per page to cover identification, pulling the paper, scanning, and reinserting into a digital record.

 Low productivity from in-house scanning stations

Lin-Cum Resolves These Problems With Big Savings:

 Increased Technician Capabilities; bar-coding, header sheets and indexing are second-nature Increased.

Turnaround; time-savings = cost-savings (labor is the highest cost element of the process)

 Lin-Cum performs the file volume and uploads/delivers the completed files with short turnaround.

 Lin-Cum, the AZ leader in Kodak scanners; as well as Fujitsu and Canon scanners, installs robust scanners with advanced features such as crop, align,  deskew and enhanced image quality, at reduced prices, to handle the daily new file and reopened-file update volume, with double-feed detection and correction, cropping, deskew and enhanced image quality, on the fly, at great cost savings.

 Users can trust the technicians and scanner to capture the entire record

 We scan a mix of various paper sizes, making document preparation easier and scanning more productive, as well as cost-effectively.

 Innovative cameras handle different backgrounds, carbons, and photos, resulting in excellent image quality after only one pass.

Automated quality control processes, better quality and usefulness of the digital record justify reduced investments in EMRs, and medical firms press forward with capture automation, or put their EMR investments at risk with staff overruns and many other problems.

Outsourcing: A Healthy Approach to EHR Migration

 We understand and have dealt with the historic problems with paper recordkeeping systems:

• Paper are inherently inefficient.

• Paper records require massive storage areas at increasing landlord cost

• Hard to retrieve, time-consuming access; hurried retrieval and re-filing result in misfiles, which again – take a lot of time to find them next time.

• Lost or misfiled records result in duplicate, unnecessary tests and procedures, additional expenses and lower patient satisfaction

• Near impossible to be accessed by multiple parties

• Delay or compromise timely or even stat patient care.

• Paper records can create serious liabilities for inability to produce  documentation for medical procedures during legal discovery.

As part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $1.2 billion is available to help hospitals and healthcare providers successfully install and use electronic health records (EHRs).

However, even with financial incentives in place, adoption has been slow and providers – especially smaller to mid-sized practices – are struggling with the capital investment and ROI. 

A practice- or hospital-wide clinical documentation of cases, tests, results and prescription ordering, with staffing already stretched to capacity - these busy physician groups have little time to devote to migrating historical record files to digital format. 

In addition, Physicians and hospitals are finding themselves increasingly in the debt collection business as the ranks of the uninsured increase along with the current economic tide of layoffs and financial uncertainty.   

A  government mandated requirement to transition to EHR by 2015 is being met with many obstacles: 

Digitizing the back file

Practices can elect to purchase a solution or outsource the business process.  Purchasing  a system requires the practice to have readily available staff and equipment.  Can these resources be deployed to other roles once the conversion activity declines? 

Investing in an EHR system requires a large capital outlay. Cost estimates vary from $25,000 to $45,000 per physician.  Annual costs for maintaining the system range from $3,000 to $9,000 per physician. 

The time or staff to digitize the back file can be a tremendous expense. 

 Physician offices operating in a hybrid environment: part paper, part digital. 

Failure to realize the full benefit and operational efficiencies of an electronic records management system. 

Lin-Cum, Inc. an outsourcing partner to an increasing number of health providers, has 26 years of experience in records conversion.

•  We understand the best way to prepare record files, clinical notes, and other data collection to comply with the government mandates and HIPPA standards

• Records are converted in a timely and accurate manner and cost-effectively.

•  We more than enough scanners or workstations, with the best support system there is,

• Our staff is highly trained and cross-trained, to be flexible to the tasks at hand.

•  We ensure a successful migration and integration with your existing systems

• Dispelled concerns about having records leave the practice’s premises

• Our own air-conditioned vehicles and drivers

• Dedicated, secured and camera-monitored assigned areas for the clients’ record

• Quick response to calls for file retrieval, and encrypted file transfer to the requestor

As a published Business Partner of Arizona State Physicians Association (ASPA), we are working with physicians, clinics and medical centers, to "go green" with electronic medical records (EMR).   We install efficient high-quality scanning stations, to scan all new formal documents into the EMR system, while we are simultaneously converting all the older files and importing them into the system.  This is the most cost-effective and quickest, "no pain" way of getting the offices out of the paper business, making it quicker and easier to retrieve and update files, and in compliance with current and upcoming HIPPA and federal regulations and requirements.

The most challenging question about document conversion and management is - how do we get started?  Once you DO get started, the question turns to "why didn't we do this a long time ago?"! 

Lin-Cum has been answering BOTH of these questions since 1983.  Before then, the founders had been solving the problem for GE/Honeywell Information Systems and the US military for many years. 

Also ask about our X-Ray scanning to electronic files services. 

Federal Government Releases Electronic Health Record (EHR) Requirements; CSC Survey Shows Hospitals Are Only 50% Compliant.    The new numbers come as no surprise. Hospitals and doctors have been slow to make the move to paperless, despite evidence suggesting electronic health records improve efficiency and help reduce deaths and injuries caused by medical errors.

(Click here, for details)

Why Our Clients have Chosen Lin-Cum, as their Document Conversion Company

Questions We've Been Asked;

Do we send any part of the work offshore? The answer is NO! 

Does “Bigger” mean “Better”?  We have more than adequate resources to do your work, to keep turnaround time short, and produce a quality product.  We always have back-up resources, trained to work on your account in order to guarantee continuous service with no disruption.   

What are your requirements in terms of experience from our technicians?  Why is this important?  In compiling, storing and retrieving your records, experience is crucial.  Lin-Cum’s management staff has collectively over 150 years of data management background.  In private business over 26 years, many of its operations staff have been with the company over 10 years.  ALL technicians are highly trained, and cross-trained, capable of performing and backing up each position.  Our Kodak-certified QA lab is regularly monitored for assurance of compliance with national and international standards 

Does each account have a dedicated manager?  Why is this important?

Your business needs to have someone at our facility that is your direct contact. That is why a Lin-Cum Account Manager is assigned to your account.  This person knows your account inside and out and must be able to make decisions quickly when you need answers. Communication is key, and having a dedicated account manager ensures that you have a person to go to at any time without getting shuttled to someone different. 

How are stat reports handled? Is there an extra charge for stat reports? Records are maintained, with reports being designated for quick retrieval and submission.  You need to know that we can designate stat records or reports and have  a system in place to make sure that they are transcribed quickly, not in the order that they come in, and certainly not the next day.  The standard response time is one hour, but if you need a report quicker than that, i.e. for emergency surgery or a patient transfer, we get the report to you immediately.  As long as stat report designation is reserved for reports that are truly stat, there is no service charge for the expedited reports. 

Is the service financially secure? Do they have audited financial statements?

Financial stability is an important factor for any vendor.  Lin-Cum, Inc. is an Arizona corporation, a family-owned and operated Small Business, and has been financially stable since 1983.   

Does the service stay abreast of changes in the healthcare industry?

Lin-Cum, Inc. is a designated partner of Arizona Physicians Association.   The Company is contracted with Northern Arizona HealthCare, Banner Health, and Yavapai Regional Medical Center.  John C Lincoln and many other facilities are among out over 900 clients statewide.  The Company services many departments within these facilities, including Employee Health, Benefits, HR, Risk Management, Finance, Accounting, and Medical Staff Services.  By being directly involved with our clients, and various organizations, attending AZ HIMA and other trade shows and continuous training, we can guarantee our clients the latest technology, trends and ideas. 

How does the service treat data security?

Lin-Cum places the (maybe MORE) emphasis on data security as your facility does.  You can be assured that we value privacy and confidentiality very highly. 

Does the service have emergency coverage and a disaster recovery plan?

In Arizona, we don't need to worry about hurricanes, but we DO have tornadoes/cyclones, floods, and storms, power failures, lost internet connections, and computers crashes.  Lin-Cum provides mirrored backup servers, and routine 24-hour backup systems.  Our facilities are secured and monitored 24/7/365. 

Does the service have an in-house IS department?  Lin-Cum's President is a a Computer Science graduate of ASU, and is our Systems "Guru".