Scanning and storing medical records

Because patient medical records must be stored for years and in some cases indefinitely, dermatologists should consider computer storage and scanning hardware and software, now less costly than paper storage.

"Scanning records is particularly beneficial for dermatology as a specialty because there are often years between the patient's visits," says Stanford I. Lamberg, M.D., Johns Hopkins.

"Many physicians give expensive office floor space to storing thousands of charts that haven't been pulled for years," he says.

Dr. Lamberg points out paper storage problems, such as demands on space and time, can be eliminated if the charts are transferred to digital media by scanning them into a computer.