The medical world as a whole is slowly becoming paperless. Medicare and Medicaid financial incentives are encouraging healthcare facilities to adopt electronic medical records, and dentists – like the one featured last week – are also using the software to reach more customers, regardless of their needs. A recent article in the Herald Net pointed out more reasons for medical offices to turn to paperless documents like electronic medical charts.
As explained in the article, dental offices have begun using electronic X-rays and tablets to better show patients their dental issues. Jim Haberman, a Seattle dentist explained to the news source that with the electronic X-rays, he can zoom in and point out cavities.
“If I want to talk to the patients about something, I’ll grab the tablet and sit side by side and go over it with the patient,” Haberman said. “A lot of people don’t see that. If you can enlarge it, you can say, ‘OK, see this area?'”
Converting dental offices to paperless systems does not just involve X-rays, but patients’ files as well. But even though many are only putting in new information electronically, there are still thousands of files on paper that need to be converted to digital records. Haberman told the news source he hopes in a year, the entire office will be digital. To make the transition, offices can use bulk scanning services instead of converting all files in-house. Once this is complete, the entire system will likely be more efficient and safe – doctors away from the office will be able to access records in case of an emergency.
Other offices – in addition to medical and dental practices – can also benefit from digital records and electronic medical charts, and they can use scanning services to get there.
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