Microfilm Faces Obsolescence as Paper Medical Records Hit the Dust Bin
For years hospitals and doctor’s offices placed medical records in neat folders held in filing cabinets. After discharge from a hospital, the patient could easily access his records and copy them for a year. Then they went into a storage facility or transferred onto microfilm. When a patient needed copies, the medical records librarian would pull the microfilm, read through it on a microfilm enlarger, them print copies that were gray and indistinct. Electronic Medical Records, EMR, reduced the need for paper records and microfilm retrieval. According to www.datawitness.com, a microfilm can be translated into digital data storage which enables the data to be retrieved electronically.
The Canadian Company, Datawitness, produced a web based system permitting data to be stored and recorded digitally. There is complete analogue back up of data, yet there is no need to store the microfilm. In a fascinating project, Datawitness worked on the e-time capsule project, in which data was stored in a time capsule to be buried at Stonehenge for 100 years, according to www.e-timecapsule.com. Hospitals and clinics felt buried by the volumes of paper records stored in their facilities. They embraced electronic records.
The West Virginia eHealth Initiative, www.wvehi.com, is a coalition of healthcare workers, business, and government to promote and coordinate the use of electronic medical records. WVeHI hopes to develop statewide health information exchange networks to connect physicians, laboratories, pharmacies, and hospitals. Patients will be able to readily retrieve their medical records. With the ability to collect and analyze data, healthcare will be improved and information shared easily. There will be fewer billing errors since the diagnoses will be in the electronic data.
To help train healthcare providers, The West Virginia Medical Foundation has helped stamp out microfilm and improve patient care with a Health Information Technology program. EMR permits information sharing at multiple locations. The information is at www.wvsma.com/foundation. Say “good bye” to micro film and “hello” to electronic medical records.
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My name is Diane and I have worked as a Healthcare Provider for over thirty years in many fields of medicine such as Public Health and Emergency Medicine. As a experienced physcisian I have used books, print media, slides and slide projectors, overhead projectors, paper and pens, C-Band, Satellite communications, telephone, fax, and email. Through Integrated Marketing Communication, I plan to explore chat rooms, effectively use an Ipod, explore web forums, and text messaging. I hope to express ideas on this blog and share information in emerging media and how it impacts medicine.
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Hi Diane,
This sounds like a great improvement, especially considering storage space costs, but I imagine satisfying security and privacy concerns is a big issue. How has HIPAA influenced the new record storage and retrieval process?
DB
Comment by thecommunicatorium | August 30, 2008 |
My office of 5 people is looking at NextGen for electronic medical filing. What do you think of NextGen, and do you feel electronic filing is better than a hardcopy?
Comment by DRDavid | September 5, 2008 |
I think modern technology is nothing but great. It can do nothing but make things easier, and more accurate. I know I’m not very old, I’m 24, but I still think it’s less cumbersome, and more reliable that the older forms.
Comment by Rocky | September 5, 2008 |
Young man, I don’t mean to question you but as you get older you’ll understand things a little better. Although some of the modern conviences are nice, that doesn’t make it better. A day does not go by that I do not hear someone saying how their computer has crashed, or lost information, or just merely screwed up somehow. Just because it’s new doesn’t make it better, just like because it’s older doesn’t make it obsolete.
Comment by Rev. | September 5, 2008 |
Old man I’m not saying that everything old needs to be thrown away, but come on some of this stuff just needs to be put in a museum and forgot about. Medicine grows and expands and the only way to do that is with technology and new innovative approaches. Come on, sometimes you just have to realize some stuff needs to be put in a museum and just forgot about.
Comment by Rocky | September 5, 2008 |
1977 there was a flood in the small town I live in. The hospital was affected by this flood as well. They had just installed new computers and thought themselves to be chugging right along with the modern train as well as everyone else. When the flood came it wiped out all of the computers and everything on them. They had these big plastic things they called disks that were destroyed along with all the information on them. Had it not been for the microfilm, microfiche, and paper hardcopies there would have been no records. So, it’s not time to put everything into a museum just yet, especially if it is still serving its purpose better than the tempermental modern technologies that you are praising.
Comment by Rev. | September 5, 2008 |
Buddy, did the flood include a another old man, a boat, and a lot of animals? Come out of the stone age, it’s time to wake up and smell the processor. Modern technology is the only way to move into the future.
Comment by Rocky | September 5, 2008 |