Posted by Janna Vienca Cañezal
Medical offices contain valuable data regarding their patients and practice. With the rise of cyberattacks in the healthcare industry, implementing a HIPAA-compliant document storage solution across your practice is a necessity. While electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs) have revolutionized the way practices securely store patient data, other types of practice data have yet to be digitized. Your business, employee, and legal documents contain sensitive and confidential information too. Thankfully, you can now digitally store non-medical files within your EHR for a safer, more secure storage solution.
IMS Drive, part of the Electronic Medical Office (EMO), is an electronic and HIPAA-compliant document storage system for non-medical files. EMO is an industry-leading suite of office management tools in Meditab’s EHR system, IMS, designed to optimize your medical office. With IMS Drive, you can store business documents, employee licenses and certifications, invoices, contracts, legal files, and other non-patient-related files. Since it’s fully integrated with IMS, you know your practice data is safe and secure.
Why is a HIPAA-Compliant File Storage Important for Your Practice?
Managing business documents and keeping up with employee licenses is a time-consuming process that takes away from patient care. Physically finding these documents and returning them to the right place is cumbersome. With digital storage, you can just log in to the system and access the documents you need in a few clicks. Unlike other industries, healthcare data is heavily regulated, so it’s crucial to store even your non-medical files in HIPAA-compliant file storage systems.
In many medical offices, even with EHRs, paper documents take too much physical space. As your practice grows, so does your collection of paperwork. Every space of your practice used for document storage could be used for patient care or medical equipment instead. Going paperless helps make your practice more eco-friendly. Additionally, paper documents lack accounting, tracking, and security. If proper security measures aren’t implemented, anyone can just go into your storage room and pull out sensitive files. Taking your non-medical files online is a crucial step in decluttering your office and keeping your files secure.
Read More: Strategies for Supporting the Business Side of Your Practice
Less Paper, More Functionality
EHRs are part of a practice’s workflow and are the main software your staff uses during their day-to-day tasks. Wouldn’t it be practical to store your non-medical files in your EHR too? With IMS Drive, you can access documents whenever and wherever you open IMS. You don’t need to be physically present in your office to view your practice files. There’s no need for third-party integrations, unlike other web storage systems. Additionally, the entire module is only accessible to authorized users.
IMS Drive is more than just a healthcare file storage system. When adding a document, IMS Drive allows you to categorize your files, add document sensitivity, and be as descriptive as you want for efficient filing. You can also give document-specific access to certain employees for an additional layer of security. On the tracking screen, you can filter the documents per office, category, sensitivity, due date, and more. From there, you can edit, delete, restore, forward, fax, and print a document.
For documents that expire within a specific period, like licenses and contracts, IMS Drive adds the option of setting due dates and renewal periods. When a document has expired, it will appear in red text to give users a heads up.
Financial documents are easy to track in IMS Drive by allowing you to add details such as invoice amount, invoice number, and check number. If you accidentally delete a document, the recycle bin feature in IMS Drive allows you to retrieve any deleted files.
Read More: A Better Office, Improved with IMS Medical Record Request Management
An Efficient, Organized Medical Office is Now Within Reach
The modern healthcare industry is developing at a fast pace. It’s also becoming more demanding concerning storage requirements. A healthcare file storage system can help your office become more organized, reduce clutter, and increase efficiency. IMS and EMO can help you upgrade your manual processes into a more efficient digital workflow, including storing your non-patient files.
Want to Learn More About Improving Your Medical Office?
