With hospitals and other medical entities now moving completely to the electronic health record (EHR) system, document digitization has a key role to play. For documentation purposes and to facilitate file transfer and sharing to other providers or even to other patients, providers are now digitizing their records using document scanners. Different types of scanners are available in the market and choosing the right scanner for your practice can be a difficult task. Medical document scanning services provided by reliable BPO companies are an option to consider if you want to maintain error-free patient records. In addition to medical records, hospitals may also have to scan, share and save prescriptions, insurance documents, IDs and more.
Document scanners may vary widely in terms of quality and features. Depending on the budget and usability, some hospitals use portable scanners for scanning on location while others opt for a larger scanner used in a central location in the facility. Duplex document scanners are mainly recommended for documents of all sizes and types – like letters, photos, receipts, bills, and both single- and double-sided pages.
According to a report from Research and Markets, the global document scanner market is expected to register a CAGR of approximately 5.2% over the forecast period (2021 – 2026). Key factors that are expected to drive the growth of the document scanner market across the globe are – the rising adoption of digital technologies across various sectors, and increasing demand for portable document scanners.
Check Out These Factors While Choosing A Scanner For Your Practice
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- Focus on the specifications
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- Speed
PPM or pages per minute determines the speed of a document scanner, and the PPM may range from 50 to 200 or more. Choose a scanner with just enough PPM for your specific needs. The scanning speed is measured also in IPM or Images per minute for duplex scanners.
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- DPI
The best scanners will have a higher dpi ranging from 600 to 1200. For high-quality scanning, or to reprint the text, it is ideal to choose up to 600 dpi. However, the best dpi for scanning documents – balancing readability and file size – is 300 dpi, making the document easy to read and share.
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- Bit depth
Color or bit depth is the amount of information the scanner gathers about the file or photo being scanned. Just as with DPI, a higher bit depth is better. For standard color scanning, bit depth in the 24- to 36- bit range will work.
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- Scanner size
- Focus on the specifications
Scanners vary drastically in size and storage space is a concern, while buying a document scanner. How much room your practice has to store your scanner matters. As hospitals require scanning hundreds of documents a day, a scanner that has a high-capacity auto-feed would be ideal. While some scanners are relatively large and bulky, others are small, and compact. Choose the right one with your office-space limitations in mind. For limited spaces, a sheet-fed scanner or automatic document scanner is ideal, as it consumes only a small office space as a desktop PC or a printer.
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- Affordable budget
Scanner cost is directly proportional to the speed of the scanner and the more pages per minute the scanner can process. Consider the budget you can afford along with your scanning needs. Check out the specifications and choose the one that best fits your purposes.
- Scanning requirements
The size of the documents to be scanned is another concern, when buying a scanner. Calculate the number of pages per day/week/or month you will be scanning approximately. The cost of the scanner also depends on the maximum size of a document that can be scanned. Generally, there are scanners which can scan either up to A4 / legal, A3 and files larger than A3.
The Strategist (nymag.com), has listed some of the best document scanners in its June 2022 article, which include Brother DS-640 Compact Mobile Document Scanner, Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Scanner, Brother ImageCenter ADS-2800W Wireless Document Scanner, Epson WorkForce ES-50 Portable Sheet-Fed Document Scanner for PC and Mac, Epson DS-530 II Color Duplex Document Scanner, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Portable Color Duplex Document Scanner, and more.
Many hospitals are relying on professional document scanning companies to scan their bulk records, because it frees up their staff’s time for patient care. By outsourcing the task, practices do not have to invest in purchasing a document scanner or employing an in-house team to manage the documents.
