"DOES PAPERLESS REALLY MEAN LESS PAPER?"

In the short run I wouldn’t count on it, but that really isn't the point.


Today most Rehab Technology Providers are extremely interest in moving operations to “Paperless”. So what is the big deal? Have we all gotten the green bug and want to reduce the demand for paper pulp, do we simply want to hold down our monthly office supply costs, or is there something more to this?

“Paperless” means different things to different folks, but at its core the concept of paperless really has a lot more to do with how we process, manage, and store information, then how much paper we actually use. Paperless generally addresses what has broadly become known as "Document Imaging". A step back in time might be helpful here to understand the scope of the issue.

If we reflect back a relatively short distance in time, most of us will recall the days where most business transactions took place in person or by mail. Patient Charts were photocopied and mailed, claim forms were on hard copy and mailed, and there always seemed to be a rush at 4:00 pm each afternoon to get the day’s mail to the post office drop box. If you needed something real fast you used Fed Ex for overnight delivery. While those might have been simpler times, with the broad acceptance of the FAX machine, we began to enter the digital age. With the fax, we could cut transaction times down by removing the snail mail time, but we still relied on a piece of paper with information on it. The standard phrase of “could you please mail me a copy” turned almost overnight to “just fax it to me”. The fax dramatically changed our access, availability, and our processing time. We could get patient data more quickly, and we could communicate large amounts of information between parties including doctors, vendors, and patients in less time than ever before, but at the bottom of it all we still relied on data printed on a pieces of paper. Our focus was on moving or replicating that paper from point to point in the process. In fact with cover pages, re-faxes due to phone line drops and machine jams, we generally ended up with more pieces of paper going into the file. The hard copy file remained and in most cases today still remains, for most providers, the central receptor of transaction data around which most back office activity takes place.

Then the Internet came along. We entered the age of email. As our desire to communicate more and more on the digital highway of information went up, the demand went way beyond that of simple printed words. We wanted pictures, videos, and voice transmission capabilities, and while all of this got better and better it generated a tremendous need for increased computer and Internet speed. Who remembers that distinctive dial-up modem sound that always proceeded the proverbial “you’ve got mail” and what about that long wait to download a single page of data to your screen? Well where there is demand, there will be supply and today we have Internet and computer speeds that continue to make jumps in astronomical proportions. Now we can download, scan, send via email, or access documents with stunning clarity and at speeds measured in just fractions of seconds. Well sure this makes sending relatives the family vacation photos or watching the latest U-Tube video offering a lot easier, but if your not positioning your back office operations to take advantage of these new functionalities then you haven't yet got the "paperless" bug.



The increase in quality and clarity in document scanning, transmission, and storage may offer the provider one of the most important practical enhancements to revolutionize how we actually operate. We now have the ability to turn the hard copy file into simply an archive storage bin and begin using a digital file as the core of our processing. Now virtually all the data you maintain on a client along with the equipment and services you provide them can be coordinated within a relatively simple and affordable computer system and be available at a click of the mouse.



Just think how much time is spent looking for files in the office, much less actually doing something productive with the information in them. If you have multiple locations or have centralized processing, just think how much more efficient processing digitally instead of manually can be. Simple things like an Rehab Technology Supplier (RTS) scanning a client's insurance card while at clinic, and virtually immediately having that record be available for your funding staff to begin checking on available benefits. What about one location receiving a clinical evaluation but needing to get it to the funding coordinator at the central office? What about being able to have more than one department take action on a case simultaneously without having to wait to get the file. The options are extremely exciting.



If you have not yet started planning or at least exploring how to integrate "Document Imaging" into your current operations there is no better time than now. "Paperless" may not cut your monthly office supply bill, but it very likely will change the basic way you do business.