Woodstock General Hospital: Document Management and Scanning Solution

Woodstock Hospital worked with Polar Imaging, a document management and imaging company based in London, Ontario. The hospital wanted a system that would allow them to expand beyond simply storing old documents. The hospital now wanted to digitize their patient files and they chose to take advantage of the additional features of PaperVision Enterprise. Polar Imaging handled their scanning needs for more than 10 years, totaling more than 12 million pages. In 2015, the hospital installed PaperFlow to so they could start scanning in house. 

Retrieving documents instantly with PaperVision Enterprise has improved the efficiency of the entire Hospital, while reducing
staff. The Records Department is no longer staffed 24 hours per day; instead of paying six full-time equivalents in the Records Department, only 2.5 are needed. Having the information all available online eliminates the retrieving and reviewing of paper documents by the coding staff. Each page of the record is still reviewed, but the process has greatly improved. Having all of the records readily available has enabled a reduction in the coding turnaround time and created efficiencies in data submission timelines.

They now scan about 3,500 pages a day, and the indexes are created automatically using a 2D barcode that pulls information in real time as the files are scanned. “Thanks to PaperVision Enterprise, the clinicians can look up information they need themselves, and the average number of calls per day has been reduced from 38 to less than six,” said Lavelle. This saved the Records Department $295,000 a year in salary costs, and $25,000 in office supplies. In fact, this year they have dropped the office supply budget almost entirely, and their annual budget for document scanning offsite is now zero dollars, saving an additional $140,000. With a three-month payback, Woodstock has received 258% ROI, which was verified by an expert, third-party analyst.

Woodstock Hospital’s patient files are now securely and accurately stored, so they are prepared to comply with PHIPA regulations, which requires the Hospital to notify patients and the Privacy Commissioner if someone sees their record who isn’t supposed to. The auditing and reporting capabilities in PaperVision Enterprise allow them to track every single access, and identify any breaches that require reporting. Having digital records in the system also allows Woodstock to easily answer monthly lawyer and insurance requests, as files are now sent through secure email or file exchange. The efficiencies gained through this implementation improved accessibility of patient records, which helped advance the timeliness of patient care at Woodstock.