Wiki New Patient Paperwork and EMR

[jocarter]

We have patients fill out new patient paperwork for Review of Systems and Histories, then a Medical Assistant takes the information from the forms and inputs it into an EMR system and then destroys the origional copies....

Should we be scanning in the paperwork the patient is filling out? What if something is not entered correctly into the EMR...

I feel we should at least scan in the documents as proof of the information provided, but I can't get anyone to get onboard with the this.

Any thoughts?

Thanks:

 

[MarcusM]

In my opinion, having dealt with patients for over three decades, they don't always remember correctly, or being in a hurry, leave out some details, like being allergic to penicillin, or being on blood thinners. (One patient did not think Coumadin was a blood thinner.) And since your practice has destroyed this evidence, you have no way to prove that what you entered into the EMR is correct. Scan it and save it so you can retrieve that piece of evidence you may only need once, but it can mean the difference between a dismissed lawsuit and your practice being liable for damages.

 

[arrana]

I would absolutely scan it. Yes, you should have a copy of what the patient filled out. You need to be able to prove where the info entered in the EMR came from. And yes, what if something was entered incorrectly (happens more than we like to think it does). We don't keep ours once they've been scanned, but they are definitely scanned.