OCR and Network Scanning for Paperless Healthcare Archiving

John Lynn, founder of HealthcareScene.com, maintains that paper will continue to play a roll in healthcare offices for the time being. However, he insists that while paper based processes may persist, organizations should adopt paperless practices such as paperless storage. By leveraging high volume scanning, coupled with OCR document conversion, healthcare organizations can transition to a more paperless office while improving ease of access to information.

OCR for paperless archiving and storage

Healthcare organizations’ front offices are inundated with high volumes of paperwork and storage of said paperwork is costly and difficult to maintain and manage. From patient health records to claims forms, management of these various forms and the ability to quickly access this information is a critical component of quality patient care. By leveraging network scanning and ABBYY Recognition Server OCR conversion technology, organizations can take their paper-based documents and render them completely text-searchable and indexable through conversion to searchable PDF, XML or other formats.

The newly converted, files can be exported to any network folder or electronic storage system to compliment any organization’s existing systems. Files can easily be parsed by searching for appropriate keywords, allowing for increased ease of access to information. ABBYY Recognition Server provides cost-effective, industry-leading OCR conversion that allows organizations to transition to paperless practices, build or optimize existing records and archival practices and improve patient care through improved ease of access to patient health information.

OCR for ICD-10 Readiness

With a little less than a year until ICD-10 standards take effect, healthcare organizations are scrambling to get processes set. Large healthcare organizations are already allocating employees and resources to address the new coding standards. However, small to medium sized providers are finding it difficult to address the new standards sufficiently. With limited resources, small to medium sized healthcare organizations should turn to ABBYY OCR data capture solutions to address impending ICD-10 standards.

OCR data capture provides added validation for ICD-10

OCR data capture technology drastically improves ICD-10 coding processes. ICD-10 coding is a very time consuming, manual process that is prone to user errors. By leveraging best-in-class OCR data capture, organizations can render the process more accurate and efficient by adding a level of automated data validation. Suppose an ICD-coder reads a patient symptom as having a high-fever and incorrectly codes for the symptom. Rather than receive penalties associated with mishandled coding or the incur the effects on claims, ABBYY FlexiCapture data capture solution can review the symptoms and the code associated with that symptom for accuracy. If the symptom and the code entered do not match the appropriate standard, the OCR solution will prompt an operator to review.

Such a solution provides small to medium healthcare organizations with a cost-effective solution to help transition to ICD-10 standards. By rendering the process more accurate, OCR technology provides organizations with a strategy to avoid the risks inherent in incorrect application of codes. Make sure your organization is well equipped come October 1 and leverage OCR data capture technology.

OCR Technology Used to Uncover Baseball’s Hidden Past

By employing OCR technology, amateur baseball historian Jim Block attempts to answer the question of baseball’s origins. For years, many have ultimately questioned the posited origins of baseball and Jim block has devoted countless years trying to discover the game’s true history. Jim would scour libraries for 18th century journals and newspapers of the day to discover any mention of the word baseball. The work required countless hours and considerable attention to detail that made the process long-winded and laborious. But, “about seven years ago, Block struck gold when libraries began scanning documents with optical character recognition software, called OCR. Block could search lots of old books and newspapers without flipping the pages, and in some cases, without leaving home.”

As Jim benefited from the efficiency gains of OCR document conversion technologies, these vary same benefits can be extended to your organization. OCR document conversion solutions, like ABBYY Recognition Server transform text based paper and digital files and make the entire contents searchable by converting into searchable PDF format for business processes such as archiving and enterprise search. ABBYY Recognition Server performs automated OCR that drastically increase productivity and reduce costs while integrating with applications such as Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Enterprise Search. Easily sift through large volumes of documents with ABBYY Recognition Server and never lose a document again!

ABBYY OCR Voted Best OCR Software by PC Magazine

PC Magazine awards ABBYY FineReader OCR 11 with its Editors’ Choice stamp of approval. ABBYY FineReader is an Optical Character Recognition Software (OCR) solution that scans paper and digital based documents and converts them into searchable and editable formats. According to PC Mag, ABBYY FineReader is the “highest-power OCR software on the market” and provides users with best-of-breed recognition capabilities.

ABBYY FineReader 11 is an ideal solution for home office users. For enterprise-wide OCR capabilities, look no further than ABBYY Recognition Server. ABBYY Recognition Server leverages the same award-winning, industry leading OCR data recognition software as Fine Reader, but can handle high volumes of documents for conversion. Recognition Server provides organizations with the ability to:

  • Convert paper based documents into fully searchable documents
  • Integrate with Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Search
  • Transform and automate archiving and filing practices

ABBYY Recognition Server is an ideal solution for enterprise wide document processing and document conversion, no matter the industry. From aiding discovery processes within law firms, to an organization looking to maximize their investment in SharePoint, ABBYY Recognition Server makes it easier than ever to standardize business-documents processes and improve access to data.

ABBYY OCR and RightFax for SharePoint

ABBYY Recognition Server is an OCR (optical character recognition) software solution that can effectively leverage your RightFax and SharePoint investments to greatly improve document archival and retrieval practices. If you currently suffer from:

  • Misplaced or misfiled documents
  • High administrative costs for storage of paper files
  • Lost time spent tracking down files

ABBYY Recognition Software will improve the efficiency of your document management processes.

Recognition Server maximizes your RightFax and SharePoint investment

Let’s assume that most of your organization’s incoming documents (invoices, employee records, contracts) are received as faxes, via RightFax. Incoming files are delivered to the digital fax solution and received either by email client or a network folder. Recognition Server will pick up the image file (TIFF, PDF, JPG, etc.) from either the email account or a network folder and automatically create fully-searchable text file (Searchable PDF, RTF, XLS, XML, etc.) for that document. Any additional indexing information can be indexed if you so choose. After Recognition Server performs the OCR, it will export the file to SharePoint automatically as a fully-searchable text document for search and retrieval.

Leveraging Recognition Server will increase workflow efficiency by:

  • Automatically delivering paper and image documents with metadata into SharePoint eliminating misplaced or misfiled documents
  • Make the content of scanned documents fully searchable
  • Brings consistency in capture, storage, and management of documents
  • Archiving files digitally for easy, enterprise-wide search and retrieval

ABBYY OCR technology can also take any existing files within SharePoint and make them fully searchable and indexable using ABBYY IFilter. The IFilter works hand in hand with the SharePoint library. IFilter communicates with SharePoint and any file within the library that is unsearchable will be sent to IFilter for creation of a text file. Now, when a user then performs a search for a particular keyword within SharePoint, the corresponding image file will be presented in its original form with a layered text-file for indexing and searching purposes.

However the benefits of Recognition Server are not restricted to the aforementioned workflow. Organizations not using RightFax or SharePoint can still benefit from the OCR technology. ABBYY Recognition Server can generate fully searchable text based off of any scanned image and can be exported to any Enterprise Content Management software by exporting to either a local folder that is synced to the cloud or to a network folder. Recognition Server is a very flexible solution that can accommodate any of your organization’s pre-existing workflows.

A demonstration of Recognition Server within a RightFax and SharePoint environment can be found here, and we encourage you to contact Paperless Productivity® for a live demonstration built around your unique workflow.