By guest bloggers Lee Houston RN BSN and Pat Iyer RN MSN LNCC
9 Advantages of Reviewing Medical Records Using Adobe Acrobat
This blog post refers to using a computer monitor and Adobe Acrobat to review medical records that have been saved as PDFs.
1. It’s more cost effective. Consider the costs of a copier, a scanner, toner, paper, postage, and maintenance of a copier machine, compared to the cost of scanning records and recording a disk.
2. Electronic files can be sent or stored on a document sharing site, making them accessible to many people.
3. It is easier to store records that are scanned and saved on a CD.
4. Electronic medical records are much more portable.
5. Electronic records can be searched using Adobe Acrobat.
6. You can bookmark pages using Adobe acrobat as well as add comments.
7. You can combine PDF files using Adobe Acrobat, and then number them using a Bates stamping system such as the one that is part of Case Map
8. You can copy and paste sections of a medical record without having to retype or transcribe them.
9. You can electronically reorganize pages within a file.
7 Advantages of Reviewing Paper Medical Records
1. Paper is a familiar format that does not require any software.
2. Printed and organized medical records are easily searchable.
3. Voluminous medical records provide a “wow” factor to visually illustrate the amount of treatment a plaintiff had.
4. Electronic records that are not organized before scanning can be tedious to review. The amount of time needed to reshuffle pages may equal the amount of time needed to organize paper records.
5. CDs of records may be easily lost compared to misplacing a large binder.
6. It requires software not everyone may have.
7. In the middle of an expert deposition, it may be difficult to locate a specific page in a medical record on a CD.
What do you think?
Which is better: reviewing medical records on a CD or in paper form?
Leave a comment!
This guest blog post was prepared by JERK members Lee Houston, BSN RN and Pat Iyer, RN MSN LNCC who are presenting a one day course on how to harness the power of Adobe Acrobat to review, organize, and edit PDF files. Lee Houston and Pat Iyer presented a popular one hour multimedia program on working with computerized medical records and Adobe Acrobat. 100% of the people who attended the program wanted more advanced training. Join us on June 28, 2012 for that training.
Adobe Acrobat for Legal Professionals: How to Harness its Power will start at 9:00 AM and end at 5:00 PM Eastern time, with breaks for homework and a meal. You will learn how to review records, make comments, reorganize electronic files, and other handy tips. Learn from the comfort of your home and office, and have the opportunity to practice the skills between sessions. You will need Adobe Acrobat to take part in the exercises. Sign up now and save!
Early bird pricing ends June 17, and will increase after that. This program is designed for legal nurse consultants and attorneys and any person who reviews medical records using a computer monitor.
Attendees on June 28, 2012 will receive the replays, transcripts, a PDF of the slides, and learning tools. The program will be available as a digital download after the course is over. When you enroll through this link at www.patiyer.com/jerk, 40% of your fee will be returned to the JERK group.
Pat Iyer will be speaking at JerkConIII on screening medical malpractice cases for merit.
Photo thanks to Windows-8-software.com and Discdocuments.com
Tags: Adobe, electronic medical record, EMR, JERK LNC, legal, legal nurse consultant, LNC, medical malpractice, medical record, medical record review, pdf file, RN
Hello Pat and Lee,
Thank you for posting this blog. I am signed up for you presentation for using Adobe Acrobat, for the download access. I am very much looking forward to the education I will obtain from this.
I have used both records via CD and via paper and I cannot really determine at this point as to which I prefer the most. As you’ve commented above, the records via CD can be a pain to organize as they tend to be all over the place and if you don’t utilize a second monitor, this could pose a real issue in terms of utilizing time.
I do have Adobe Acrobat Pro and have been using it for about 3-4 months now. I do know that I surely do not have all of the ins and out about this program that could really benefit me and my utilization of time. Sometimes I have issues with OCR, which makes me frustrated.
I would have to say that sometimes that I have had paper records that were NOT hand written, sometime they seem easier to handle and review. So, at this point I am on the fence and I hope your course will teach me how to utilize Adobe to my benefit.
Thank you,
Lori Combs RN, LNC