Paperless office

Most offices have filing cabinets full of x-rays, referral letters and tax files.This is bad from several points of view.They take up unnecessary space, are time consuming to access, sometimes get lost and create a general clutter and fluster around the office. ("Who has Mrs Smith's OPG?")My last office was set up from inception in 2001 to be entirely paperless. It was easy using the technology available then and is even easier now.

• I had digital intra-oral x-rays and digital OPG.
• Photos of the patients' teeth were stored digitally.
• X-rays received from elsewhere were scanned and given back to the patient.
• Referral letters were scanned when they arrived and attached to the patient files as images.
• Health history forms were scanned but nowadays I would have the patient fill in and sign a digital form on an iPad.
• I only dealt with specialists who accepted communication via email.
• Receipts and other tax related documents were scanned then shredded.

The convenience of always having everything only a mouse click away was fantastic.Of course I protected all the data with daily backups.If you are not 100% paperless then now is the time to make the jump.