What Are the Two Types of Hybrid Medical Records?

Doctor's offices have maintained and kept paper medical records for many years to help track patient medical history and provide better care. With the increase in available technology, some offices now use electronic medical records to save money and space. However, not all offices are ready to move on to purely electronic files, which leaves the option of using one of two types of hybrid medical records.

Combination Records

• Some doctor's offices choose to use a combination of both paper and electronic records. This allows the amount of paper records to be reduced because some of the documents are stored electronically. For instance, any type of record that can be created electronically, such as visit notes and prescription records, are stored as electronic records for easy access. Other documents that are originally created on paper, such as consent forms and letter correspondence, are kept in their paper form. It is up to each doctor's office to determine the percentage of the records kept in paper and electronic forms.

Digital Imaging

• If a doctor's office hopes to transfer to a completely electronic medical record system in the future, a digital imaging hybrid is advantageous. For this type of medical record keeping, many of the documents are still maintained in their paper form, but to save space and time when trying to locate a specific record, the paper documentation is scanned and digitally filed into a computer system. In some cases, the paper documentation may be disposed of, but in others, the office may box the physical documents and store it offsite in case it is needed in the future.

Advantages

• While storing medical records electronically saves space and allows for easier access to doctors and nurses, some people worry about the possibility of an electrical outage or other computer issues. If such an issue occurs, no one would be able to access the medical records. For this reason, some doctors are not comfortable with transferring over to a completely electronic system. Using a hybrid system gives a doctor's office the best of both worlds, keeping the paper records just in case, but providing the easy access of an electronic system.

Transfer between Systems

• One of the biggest problems that some doctors see with changing over to an electronic system is the amount of time it takes to transfer records; they may worry that the transition will disrupt the care they can provide for their patients or require extra labor costs. If the transition is planned carefully, however, it can be a smooth process; the use of a hybrid medical records system allows a doctor's office to take its time transferring records. All new records are immediately entered into the electronic system; older records can be moved over as each patient is seen or through a gradual, systematic process.