|
|
|
|
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat are archives?According to French legislation (79-18, January 3rd, 1979) archives are " all documents, regardless of their date, form and media created or received by any person or legal entity and by any public or private department or organization in the performance of their activities ". The term also refers to the building where such documents are stored and the department responsible for these documents. What is this department's function ?This department is responsible (based on decree 79-1037, dated December 3rd, 1979) for control of the following:
But why are the medical records not preserved by the different departments ?Centralized computerized archive management allows better organization and faster retrieval of medical records. Why must all of these obsolete documents be preserved ?Firstly, from a historical viewpoint, this tradition of preserving everything is deeply ingrained in France : the first State Archives were created by August Philip(in 1194) to keep track of property deeds and (in particular) taxes (already in use at this time...) . France is also famous for its Ecole des Chartes (School of Palaeography and Librarianship) which trains the record keepers who primarily manage the departmental and national archives. Their long-lived management traditions have contributed to successful genealogical and historical research. Secondly, preservation is a legal requirement : in fact, the law requires that documents be archived for rather long " preservation periods ". Moreover, preservation is a medical requirement : medical record information is used for a better understanding of patient pathologies. How does computerized medical record management improve efficiency ?Above all, computerized medical record management allows greater clarity and transparency. Today, computerized management allows better document organization and faster retrieval. This reduced waiting time, and the consequent improvement in service quality are of course greatly appreciated by hospital departments. The search statistics generated by computerized record management are generally forwarded to higher management. This makes these statistics a quantifiable element of quality. When is computerized management an urgent requirement ?The problem becomes obvious in many ways : the work premises are saturated and new medical records arrive in a constant, unending stream. There are not enough qualified personnel to manage an increasingly complex records system. Hospital departments wait too long for answers and the hospital's image suffers from low service quality. Given these problems, why not digitize all documents? Wouldn't this allow for their immediate destruction and direct access to the desired information?Digitization is a tempting solution. However, in reality it is only a balance between utopia and nightmare because of the enormous amount of work required. No one can justify the digitization of millions of documents when consultations never exceed 3 for every 1000 preserved documents ! At the same time, courage (but not recklessness) is necessary. After the documents have been digitized, who will take responsibility for their destruction, keeping in mind the above-mentioned legal requirements? What skills does a company responsible for this computerization need ?It is a truism to declare that a company responsible for computerized archiving must have archival and computing and medical skills. It must know every aspect of the archive keeper's trade, have mastered modern computing techniques and be familiar with medical environment. And Amig has all of these skills ?Yes, we do. Our team developed the " first public archive software to appear on the market " (according to an August, 1995 evaluation study by the independent Van Dijk bureau). Consequently we have very extensive experience in the archive field. In terms of IT experience, in 1993 our development team adopted the easy-to-use, attractive Windows platform. The Van Dijk bureau even stated that " user-friendliness is Ariane's main strong point ". We were also one of the first companies in France (in all fields) to start using Microsoft Access. Our solutions are fully developed within a Client/Server architecture. |
|
|
