Forms are easily scanned with just one click using a high-speed scanner with an automatic document feeder, to create digital copies of laboratory request forms
AutoCard, from Olympus Osyris, eliminates photocopying, filing, sorting and retrieval of paper forms.
"AutoCard has made an incredible difference in our lab, it has completely purged us of countless drawers of manually filed paper request forms.
"This has saved us both in space and time spent physically filing and searching for forms," enthuses Tony Bedford, departmental manager for chemical pathology, Harrogate District Foundation Trust.
"It has also removed a very real infection control risk from blood contaminated forms".
Request forms are electronically stored as high-quality Tiff (tagged image file format) images by AutoCard for easy access by all staff anywhere in the laboratory or even hospital via the network.
These virtual copies can be indexed by any barcode on the form, eg the patient ID or sample ID barcodes, which makes storing and accessing files fast and easy.
Instead of rooms full of paper files, images of all forms can be stored on a central secure database.
The database can be periodically archived for maximum efficiency and long-term storage, ensuring legal requirements are met.
Lab staff at Harrogate District Foundation Trust have been using AutoCard for four years and find it central to their daily workflow efficiency.
"Using AutoCard has saved at least an hour a day of a biomedical scientist's valuable time," said Tony Bedford.
"Having instant networked access to an image of the original request form from anywhere within the hospital means that we can immediately check for any hand written comments.
"We can also verify the actual time of sample taking, for example, which is crucial to know when checking atypical results, such as high potassiums which may have been refrigerated.
"Such is the value and versatility of AutoCard that all pathology disciplines use the system.
"We have recently installed a second AutoCard for use by Blood Transfusion to enable them to keep a secure lifetime record of all blood tracking documentation using minimal storage space - a server as big as a PC and a few racks of CDs."
