Technical Issues & Suppliers  
 

The process of creating the record involves converting the legacy record and the new electronic notes to an easy to read format then exporting it to the disk - the stages are shown below.

1. Legacy records conversion
The old paper notes and letters are scanned onto the computer system using a VRS Scanner Supplied by Pinpoint Digital. This scanner can scan multiple sheets at once (up to 300), mixed paper sizes (business card to A3) and scan both sides at once.

 

 

2. Export process
The process is managed by our clinical system (EMIS). We can choose which aspects of the medical record to export. All that our staff have to do to create the record is to select the patient record and press the export button.

3 How do you get the files onto the disk ?

The files are copied to a secure drive on our network and copy instructions are sent to the CD Rom machine. The process copies all of the files onto the root of the disk. The copy machine picks up a disk, copies the files and delivers the completed disks onto a spindle for collection by our staff.

4. Export format
The medical record is exported as an HTML page complete with hypertext links. Click here to see an example of a medical record ~ please note that this is a test patient and the medical record is entirely fictitious.

5. Size of records
Most patient records are between 40k and 160k in size. Depending upon the number of files attached to the record the medical record may be as large as 10Mb - the disk can hold up to 40Mb of information. Larger disks are available for medical records which comprise even larger files - the most we can accommodate on a CD Rom is 690Mb.

6. Production of records
We can produce the records on individual writable drives but for large scale production of medical records we utilise a CD Copy Machine also supplied by Pinpoint Digital

7. Destruction of records
When the disk is no longer required, the data on it must be securely removed. We have obtained a machine which does exactly this ~ this machine is available from an American company called Whittaker Brothers.

8. Security of records.

The records exported are not encrypted in order that patients can view them without the need for special decryption software. We are concerned about the confidentiality of the record - of course we are - the record is no less secure than a paper printout ( this would be the alternative if the patient requested a copy of their notes).

9. Communication & Public Relations

The cartoon explanatory poster and disk graphics were specially designed for us by Gwen Morgan from Riverline.

The Website database driven pages were designed and constructed by Tim Almond of Venus Systems. The Website itself was authored by Steve Foote and his team from Tin Racer Design.

Rhona Jack from Blue Click handles our Public Relations with photography for the website and for the open project launch provided by Ross.

The menu driven telephone helpline was possible following the installation of the Avaya Telephone System by Peter Gill and Jan Thompson from New Life Data.