Trouble finding Medical Charts?

This three story building on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn is a busy office with 50 - 100+ patient appointments per day. They have an estimated 5,000+ active charts but really have 60,000+ charts and the number grows every day. At the heart of the operation, a system called "Sammy" written by ICS Software in Oceanside NY, is used.

We received a call from a very pleasant young woman inquiring how barcodes or RFID can be used to help locate their charts. This led to a conversation with the Doctor, an older, very charming gentleman, and then to a conversation with the folks at ICS Software.

After a visit to the office, four things were clear:

1. They needed a better way of locating their charts
2. Labeling the charts was going to be a big job
3. Getting the folks to adopt the new system would be a challenge
4. RFID was out of the question ¹

The Doctor at this office is a man with ideas. He is constantly thinking of ways to streamline operations. He was already four steps ahead of me asking how new Sammy patients will be entered into Traverse and how to get each chart's current location on the Sammy schedule.

We equipped the office with two Zebra CS3000 batch scanners and two Zebra LS2208 USB Keyboard Wedge scanners to start with the idea that they will better be able to determine how many devices they need after they start using the system.

We also imported all of the existing charts from the Sammy system into Traverse, and then devised a plan by which we could label and account for all of the charts in the office.

The plan was simple:

1. Label all of the shelves and file cabinets with barcoded location labels
2. Remove all charts from a single shelf
3. Scan the location label from where the charts were taken using the Zebra CS3000
4. Print the barcodes for the charts that were removed from the shelf
5. Affix the correct barcode to each chart
6. Scan each chart using the Zebra CS3000
7. Return the charts to the location
8. Repeat for the next location
9. Sync the Zebra CS3000 data with Traverse

To my surprise, they were able to label and scan all of the charts in less than a week all while tending to the office, I suspect they may have worked a weekend.

They purchased several more CS3000 and LS2208 scanners as needed.

As new patients come to the office, they are entered into the Sammy system. The Sammy system in turn sends an HL7 record to the Traverse system thereby creating the chart in Traverse. About ICS Software (Sammy)

All charts are scanned from location to location in the Traverse system using the LS2208 scanners. As charts move throughout the office by scanning them to a new location, the Traverse system creates HL7 records for the Sammy system thereby updating the current location of each chart in the Sammy system. Each day the schedule of visiting patients prints from the Sammy system. The location of each chart is included on the report so the staff knows where they are to pull them for today's visits.

Periodically, charts that appear to be out of place are scanned to their current location or moved to their put-away location via CS3000 scanner.

One of the things we discovered while rolling Traverse into different medical offices is that many medical offices use Dymo printers for various labeling tasks.

Traverse can and does print barcode labels to Dymo printers, as well as Intermec, Zebra, SATO, Datamax, and others.

It may be difficult to calculate a real return on investment, but a properly priced solution that truly does save time is good for everyone.

The system is browser based so it can be accessed anywhere from within your facility. All you need is a browser and a login. You can access it from your PC, Laptop, tablet, or phone.

You install it at your facility on your own hardware so it is available to you 24x7 and so that all of the data is private. It can only be accessed by those who can access your company network.

You can install it yourself with the aid of our installation guide and instructional video, or we can install it for you either in person or via a screen share session.

You can also use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for added security. If you have ever noticed when you go to your bank's web site the URL is HTTPS instead of HTTP, the "S" is for secure and uses SSL. When SSL is used, the data transmission between your browser and the Web Server is encrypted.

This is just another measure to ensure HIPAA 45 CFR 164.502(a)(1)(iii) compliance.

We are also sensitive to the average care facility's budget and have priced the software, training, and support in a very common sense manner.

Trouble finding Medical Charts? Call us for a quote.   201-728-8809

¹ There are many types of RFID systems and tags. Passive RFID tags are typically the least expensive. The price is often lower when purchased in bulk. Assuming $0.20 per tag, labeling 5000 charts with no errors costs $1,000.00, which is not unreasonable, but what does it buy? Given the density of the stacks and piles of charts, one could not simply walk into a room with an RFID scanner and capture the location of each chart. Many charts would not be read at all because the RFID signal cannot penetrate a thick pile of paper. Paper is one of many substances that absorbs radio frequency energy. Given that one would still need to scan each chart individually, barcodes make more sense. One could conceive of a hybrid solution using barcodes and RFID such that chokepoints throughout the office could track the movement of charts, but again the system would be limited to the density of the stack of charts, the way the charts might be carried, and the speed at which a person may walk through the chokepoint. In addition, varying amounts of equipment would be required to cover each chokepoint. Using RFID in this type of environment would require active tags, which could cost upwards of several dollars per tag. Active tags would not be cost effective for tracking medical charts in this type of environment.