EDCO | Case Studies | Storage Solutions





		Storage Solutions – Jane Ann's Story “As director of the Health Information Management department of a hospital, I finally cried ‘UNCLE’ when our medical records kept growing much faster than our archiving budget. We needed to pull two years of charts in order to regain a sense of organization and control. Because we didn’t have budget for that much conversion, I felt our only option was to resort to [paper] storage. I knew that the medical staff would be unhappy with the slower response time for chart requests, but these days budget is budget. “When I told my EDCO rep about our decision, I received some eye-opening statistics. Because, like most hospitals, we keep medical records indefinitely, he pointed out the long-term impact of my idea to save money today. I would be paying dearly for those boxes in a few years. These examples that really got my attention: If I spend $70,000 this year on conversion, that paper is gone and no longer costing me. If I spend $10,000 for storage, I save $60,000. But next year, that $60,000 drops to $50,000 because I pay another $10,000. And so on. After 7 years (at the latest), I’ve paid the $70,000 and STILL HAVE THOSE BOXES. THEN, I keep paying $10,000 the next year and the next and the next. If I want to get out of storage, I have to either destroy the boxes some time in the future or pay the conversion fee. “EDCO helped me look at some options. I didn’t realize it, but they have a huge underground storage facility [SecureStore] with a scan-on-demand retrieval system. Using a protected website, my staff simply logs onto RetrievalNet to make the request for charts in storage. Those records are pulled, scanned, and uploaded for us to print or distribute electronically. “But the real solution came when we laid out a budget that converts those stored boxes over a three year period. We will have worked through the extra year of paper without being a financial burden. With their DocuDisk scanning service now costing about the same as microfilm, I’m also accomplishing our productivity, customer service, and technology goals.” Back to Case Studies main page Contact EDCO at 1-800-999-3456 or email us at info@edcogroupinc.com © EDCO-The Document People® 2006