Imaging system, LanVision, saves time, spaceby George SpainTechnical Publisher While it seems most clinical departments are bursting at the seams trying to fit those overflowing medical records folders into evermore steel cabinets, help is on the way. As the LanVision document imaging system redeems floor space in cramped offices, it also offers patients a new level of security and doctors a quick way to view a patient’s history. Now you don’t have to call around trying to locate a patient’s medical history, it can be right there, on your computer. It’s not, strictly speaking, an electronic medical record (in the way PMSI/Practice Partner is), but the LanVision scanning and storage system, which creates images of various hospital and clinic patient data forms and batches them together for live viewing, has been making headway by reducing folders and cabinets since 1999. Just recently the system passed another milestone when test files were successfully received, scanned, and downloaded to the MUSC system from an out-of-state contractor who successfully bid on the job of preparing the data for electronic viewing. The Office of the CIO Information Services (IS)— especially John Dell’s Financial and Admin-istration Systems—has worked closely with Susan Pletcher, director of health information services, to make the transition from paper to digital a realistic goal. Jerry G. Reves, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine, has a vision that there should be only electronic medical records in the new hospital by the time it’s built and staffed. “We’re taking that to heart,” said Pletcher, as she walked around the area that once held dozens of cabinets and thousands of files. “We couldn’t ever walk back there before.” Now, as she exits, her footsteps leave a slight echo. The heart of the system is a rather ordinary gadget that looks like it belongs to another decade. But before documents wind up there, they have to be prepped, the most time-consuming part of the process. Forms assembled, staples re-moved, multi-part forms separated. If the documents don’t come unglued, the system will. It was only in July that all clinical records became part of the process, before that, the electronic forms were created on an ad hoc basis (court orders, etc.). State law requires that patient files be kept for 10 years; however, MUSC policy is more restrictive, requiring that the records be stored for 15 years. No law specifies the nature of the file; therefore digital is just as good as paper. In fact, it’s more secure, says Pletcher. “When a folder with patient information is lying around you don’t know who might have had access, but with LanVision, there’s an audit trail. We can tell who saw it, and when,” said Pletcher. “Different kinds of files have different levels of security. For example, sexual assault cases and child abuse cases might require a higher level password to be viewed.” But the main reason the physicians like it is because they don’t have to wait for a records “pull.” Pletcher said that Sunil J. Patel, noted neurosurgeon, is a big fan of the system because it puts a patient’s history together in one place. The contract with the outside vendor is so that archival records, including past clinic patient records, can be fed into the system while current records continue to flow into LanVision. Another LanVision scanner is on order. If all goes as well as it has, you might find some extra floor space in your office. Friday, Nov. 26, 2004
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