September 2005

Advantages Of Using Adobe Acrobat PDF Files

Adobe PDF documents can be shared, viewed, and printed by anyone, on any system, using free Adobe Reader® software — regardless of the operating system, original application, or fonts. Adobe Reader® software can be installed on every network computer or system for free and people and you can download it for free from the Internet. PDF files are an advantage to your A&L Document Console system because it allows you to share documents easily with anyone with no added expenses.

Benefits listed are as follows:

• Documents always look exactly the same

• Documents can be distributed worldwide for almost zero cost and then be digitally printed.

• Documents can be magnified by up to 1600%, without diminishing the quality.

• The documents can be navigated by keyword search, table of contents or hyperlinks.

• The format is ideal for presentations, since PDF documents always look exactly the same on all platforms.

• The file format is very compact, so files can be sent quickly to recipients.

• Ideal for archiving, since the look and feel of documents is retained and the document size is compact

• The file format is essential for business documents like agreements and forms that must retain their exact appearance for legal reasons.

Sharing across Platforms

A PDF File is a document format that represents a document in a manner independent of the hardware, operating system and application software used to create the document. It was designed to enable documents to be transferred and shared across computer platforms. A PDF document created in one platform such as Windows can be read in another platform such as Macintosh or Unix. All these advantages translate into faster, cheaper and less complex documents, improving workflow throughout the your office or business.

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Electronic Document Imaging Case Study

Dr. Rose Kung - Case Study

"For more than three years we have enjoyed the luxury of having an office with no filing cabinets bulging with patient charts, files and documents. Yet we still have all patient information at our fingertips – or more accurately, at just a few clicks of our computer mouse.” – Dr. Rose Kung

The Headache

I operate a busy ob/gyn practice at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. As my practice grew, the storage and retrieval of patient charts along with all the associated examination documents became a burdensome task, not to mention the cost of filing cabinets, file folders and my assistant’s time taken to access and file the relevant material for each patient’s visit.

Also, it was not uncommon for an occasional document to be misplaced or misfiled, resulting in additional time being needed to locate the missing material.

Since we were already using computers in the office to handle such administrative tasks as our billing procedures I began to consider whether a computer could also be used to speed up the process of storing, accessing and archiving all data in our patient files. ... Thus, we were introduced to A&L’s Document Console.

The A&L Solution

It has since proven to be a good decision. Our office efficiency has improved and there have been no adverse effects on patient care. In addition, I am happy to say that a further important benefit has been an improvement financially. For the number of patients I service, I would need two large filing cabinets to store their charts and documents in the traditional manner. With the document imaging system I have no need for filing cabinets. I also save costly floor space. Likewise, there are no hanging files or file folders to purchase. The cost saving thus realized paid for the A&L Document Console software.

I can understand a physician’s reluctance to destroy hard copy patient documents. I also experienced this trepidation. But over a period of time, the reliability of the system convinced me that it was no longer necessary to save them. After all, this would defeat the purpose of having the system in the first place. Of course, our database is backed up every day by the hospital’s Information Technology department; so if something does happen to our computer system we always have a copy of our files from which the database can be easily recreated. Now our hard copy documents are regularly sent for shredding every two weeks or so...

Security of patient information is not an issue since password protection is provided by the system. Also, different types of access capabilities can be assigned to staff at the time their passwords are established.

Another advantage the system provides is the ability to send copies of patient documents to another physician anywhere in the world, directly from my computer, as long as that physician has the capability to receive information electronically. This can be done by fax or by an e-mail attachment and avoids the necessity of having to make a hard copy of a document as well as the expense incurred in mailing it. In the same manner, electronic documents can be received from other sources and easily attached to a patient’s file in my database...

The Conclusion

All in all we find the convenience and time saved by using this system to be a great advantage to our office operations. It also presents an efficient way to archive inactive patient files, and in my type of practice they are in the majority. After having used this system for over three years now, I would not want to return to the manual method for storing patient charts and files.

To find out more about the Document Console click here