Joseph Brant selects BARC for records scanning

BURLINGTON, Ont. – Bay Area Records Conversion (BARC) has won a contract to provide record scanning services for Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH). The three-year contract involves annually converting an estimated 2.5 million pages of paper patient records into digital images, and uploading these images into the hospital’s electronic record system.

“We were impressed with Bay Area’s leading practices and its experience in handling complex health information applications,” says Julie DePaul, JBH’s director of Health Information Services and chief privacy officer. “Bay Area is cost effective and has a proven track record of accuracy in converting patient records.”

BARC guarantees a 99.99 per cent accuracy rate, 24-hour turnaround times, and a secure state-of-the-art facility in Hamilton. The business provides records scanning services for 13 hospital facilities, including all sites of Hamilton Health Sciences and the Niagara Health System. Other customers include medical clinics, law firms, financial institutions, architects, engineers and government agencies. Since its establishment in 2003, BARC has scanned some 150 million pages of documents.

“For Joseph Brant Hospital we will arrange for daily pickup of their records,” says BARC’s director Peggy van Wyck. “We will provide daily conversion of these paper records into digital images and upload them directly via a network connection into the hospital’s Meditech software.” Once uploaded, the electronic patient records can be viewed anytime, anywhere by hospital clinical staff.

“Record conversion will eliminate all work associated with filing and retrieving paper records, and the associated costs and delays of retrieving those records,” van Wyck adds, noting that electronic health records also save valuable hospital space.

Bay Area Records Conversion is a division of Bay Area Health Trust, which operates a number of enterprises designed to generate profits used to support local healthcare and healthcare research.