It is estimated by the government that the cost of physical paper storage is between £500,000 and £1m per year for each healthcare trust.
This is why the NHS is planning to become a paperless organisation by 2018.
It has now been announced that each patient will be given a barcode to help streamline operations, and there are also proposals for NHS apps to be used to allow people to book appointments and order prescriptions using their mobile phone.
Pearl Scan Solutions, which has scanning centres in London and Manchester, is helping GP surgeries, health trusts and hospital departments implement electronic storage systems.
Having a digital system in place can reduce medication errors, save time and resources, free up storage space and of course save the NHS millions of pounds.
Switching to digital storage systems could also cut down on administration errors and further improve data protection.
Recently, a hospital in Essex caused outrage by sending a patient’s personal medical record to somebody else in the post. The blunder was made by Goodmayes Hospital in Illford, and the patient was furious after finding out that sensitive information about her past had been handed over to a complete stranger.
Naveen Ashraf, managing director of Pearl Scan Solutions, said: “Medical records are strictly private and confidential, so this story highlights what can go wrong in busy NHS environments with an overworked workforce.
“Medical staff make mistakes too, they are only human – but by having a paperless NHS, we can further safeguard patients and ensure all medical records are safe and secure. They are also much more easily accessible, which will speed up treatment and generally improve care across the board.”
By bringing the NHS into the digital age, hospitals, surgeries, dentists and other medical organisations will become much more efficient. Patient notes and records will be able to be sent between departments, consultants and specialists much quicker, and patients may also be able to access their own medical records online.
Pearl Scan collects all paper medical records, then scans, indexes and archives all folders and documents, and stores them in a variety of ways, from electronic search and storage systems to PDFs and CD roms. The paper files can then be securely shredded or returned to the NHS department. If medical records are too sensitive to be sent to Pearl Scan headquarters, the team can come and scan on site with its state-of-the-art scanning systems.
