By Susan de Cathelineau, vice president of health sales and services at Hyland, creator of OnBase
ECM technology has made huge strides in the past 10 years. Still, in many cases it remains invisible to those who use it daily. Created as a departmental document management platform, called “document and image management” at the time, it focused on digitization and electronic storage of paper material to help departments reduce costs and recover physical space. Over time, it included workflow, business process and case management capabilities. It has evolved from a document management solution to what is currently called Enterprise Content Management (ECM).
In the health segment, the ECM tool is able to automatically fill in forms with information already filed from patients, which provides greater convenience and speed in the process. Once ECM captures content electronically, complete and accurate patient information is available for immediate access from the PEP (Electronic Patient Record) itself, optimizing not only the registration process, but also downstream, such as billing. This clinical content strategy is essential for data preservation, providing healthcare organizations with a roadmap for improved patient treatment.
ECM goes beyond administrative data and includes clinical content such as laboratory results, injury treatment photos, electrocardiograms and more. This content integrated with the PEP can be accessed by doctors quickly and easily, without the need to switch between different applications to access the information. In view of the increase in the volume of content and the ever greater need to have a central repository, integration with other essential business systems remains a decisive element of ECM solutions.
One of the most recent features is the capture and storage of content such as radiographs, magnetic resonances and computed tomography, in the standard of digital image communication in medicine (DICOM). ECM's ability to manage these images comes to complete the solution's effectiveness in providing healthcare organizations with a comprehensive clinical content strategy.
ECM technology has come a long way from its roots in document management. The digitization-storage-retrieval model, which helped to end physical files and reuse space, has undoubtedly become an essential corporate solution.
In the health segment, the ECM tool is able to automatically fill in forms with information already filed from patients, which provides greater convenience and speed in the process. Once ECM captures content electronically, complete and accurate patient information is available for immediate access from the PEP (Electronic Patient Record) itself, optimizing not only the registration process, but also downstream, such as billing. This clinical content strategy is essential for data preservation, providing healthcare organizations with a roadmap for improved patient treatment.
ECM goes beyond administrative data and includes clinical content such as laboratory results, injury treatment photos, electrocardiograms and more. This content integrated with the PEP can be accessed by doctors quickly and easily, without the need to switch between different applications to access the information. In view of the increase in the volume of content and the ever greater need to have a central repository, integration with other essential business systems remains a decisive element of ECM solutions.
One of the most recent features is the capture and storage of content such as radiographs, magnetic resonances and computed tomography, in the standard of digital image communication in medicine (DICOM). ECM's ability to manage these images comes to complete the solution's effectiveness in providing healthcare organizations with a comprehensive clinical content strategy.
ECM technology has come a long way from its roots in document management. The digitization-storage-retrieval model, which helped to end physical files and reuse space, has undoubtedly become an essential corporate solution.
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