Arrendale Associates, Inc.

TAŽ ARCHIVING: HOW TO MAKE YOUR HIM DIRECTOR SMILE

How long would you like to save transcriptions on-line? How much time does it take your facility to handle each of those Releases of Information requests from lawyers, insurance companies and patients? Is there a faster way? How long does it take your ER clerk to locate the discharge summary from a previous stay?

Transcript Advantage has always offered configurable storage of patient transcriptions on-line for secure facility-wide viewing with on-demand printing and faxing capabilities. While many of our customers conform to a 90-day after discharge policy for purging transcripts, it is not unusual for a facility to desire to keep all transcriptions on-line indefinitely. This ideal situation may be feasible in a small hospital, but is often not practical due to other needs for limited DASD. When using a hardware platform such as the IBM AS/400, most Information Systems departments set the purge date. As HIM directors quickly point out, system users throughout the facility can be more efficient if they know that any needed transcription is always on-line.

AAI offers the Archiving module of Transcript Advantage to solve this age-old dilemma. With TAŽ Archiving, transcriptions are moved seamlessly to optical storage at a customer-determined date. The best part of the TAŽ solution is that end users such as physicians and clerks use the same retrieval method for on-line and stored data. The TAŽ Archiving solution is made possible with an added software component from Infinite Options, Inc. of Knoxville, TN. Their IO/DataManagement module with TAŽ provides secure retrieval without operator assistance. Enterprise wide users see the “Retrieving from optical” message at the bottom of the screen during the search, which averages less that 20 seconds or longer depending on system performance. The integration between Transcript Advantage and Infinite Options allows the “one stop shopping” approach to finding that needed report. No need to look in multiple systems. As Brad Tutt, Vice President of Infinite Options Points out, “The seamless interface between TAŽ and IO/DataManagement-TATAŽ is transparent to the end user. Provided optical volumes are placed into the IBM 3995 Optical Library Dataserver, the purged data is securely placed onto optical media that prevents any possible data loss. When multiple optical volumes are placed into the optical library, the system can operate with minimal operator intervention. By saving the transcript data to optical media in its native TAŽ format, the solution is very efficient and keeps system overhead to a minimum. Using IO/DataManagement, the process is very fast and a single inquiry screen is used to view all TAŽ information”.

From a TAŽ customer perspective, Roger Howell, Director of Information Systems at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, comments, “TAŽ and Infinite Options are a winning combination. Purging reports from magnetic to optical is an automatic process that frees up valuable disk space. The users do not have any idea where the documents are and really do not care as long as the access continues to be quick and reliable. Within SAMC we provide simultaneous access to RDARS and transcribed reports from our 144 slot IBM 3995 optical unit. Long-term storage of transcribed reports is a great asset to caregivers when a patient returns for treatment because that historical information is instantly available. Simple to use, quick to access, improving patient care, I would definitely recommend this solution.”

If your facility already has an archiving solution, TAŽ Archiving also interfaces with IBM's On Demand, formerly RDARS and imaging systems such as Real Vision and McKessonHBOC Pathways Image Manager (Imnet). For more information about TAŽ Archive contact AAI sales staff.

April 2000 TAŽ News


News and Events	TAŽ ARCHIVING: HOW TO MAKE YOUR HIM DIRECTOR SMILE How long would you like to save transcriptions on-line? How much time does it take your facility to handle each of those Releases of Information requests from lawyers, insurance companies and patients? Is there a faster way? How long does it take your ER clerk to locate the discharge summary from a previous stay? Transcript Advantage has always offered configurable storage of patient transcriptions on-line for secure facility-wide viewing with on-demand printing and faxing capabilities. While many of our customers conform to a 90-day after discharge policy for purging transcripts, it is not unusual for a facility to desire to keep all transcriptions on-line indefinitely. This ideal situation may be feasible in a small hospital, but is often not practical due to other needs for limited DASD. When using a hardware platform such as the IBM AS/400, most Information Systems departments set the purge date. As HIM directors quickly point out, system users throughout the facility can be more efficient if they know that any needed transcription is always on-line. AAI offers the Archiving module of Transcript Advantage to solve this age-old dilemma. With TAŽ Archiving, transcriptions are moved seamlessly to optical storage at a customer-determined date. The best part of the TAŽ solution is that end users such as physicians and clerks use the same retrieval method for on-line and stored data. The TAŽ Archiving solution is made possible with an added software component from Infinite Options, Inc. of Knoxville, TN. Their IO/DataManagement module with TAŽ provides secure retrieval without operator assistance. Enterprise wide users see the “Retrieving from optical” message at the bottom of the screen during the search, which averages less that 20 seconds or longer depending on system performance. The integration between Transcript Advantage and Infinite Options allows the “one stop shopping” approach to finding that needed report. No need to look in multiple systems. As Brad Tutt, Vice President of Infinite Options Points out, “The seamless interface between TAŽ and IO/DataManagement-TATAŽ is transparent to the end user. Provided optical volumes are placed into the IBM 3995 Optical Library Dataserver, the purged data is securely placed onto optical media that prevents any possible data loss. When multiple optical volumes are placed into the optical library, the system can operate with minimal operator intervention. By saving the transcript data to optical media in its native TAŽ format, the solution is very efficient and keeps system overhead to a minimum. Using IO/DataManagement, the process is very fast and a single inquiry screen is used to view all TAŽ information”. From a TAŽ customer perspective, Roger Howell, Director of Information Systems at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, comments, “TAŽ and Infinite Options are a winning combination. Purging reports from magnetic to optical is an automatic process that frees up valuable disk space. The users do not have any idea where the documents are and really do not care as long as the access continues to be quick and reliable. Within SAMC we provide simultaneous access to RDARS and transcribed reports from our 144 slot IBM 3995 optical unit. Long-term storage of transcribed reports is a great asset to caregivers when a patient returns for treatment because that historical information is instantly available. Simple to use, quick to access, improving patient care, I would definitely recommend this solution.” If your facility already has an archiving solution, TAŽ Archiving also interfaces with IBM's On Demand, formerly RDARS and imaging systems such as Real Vision and McKessonHBOC Pathways Image Manager (Imnet). For more information about TAŽ Archive contact AAI sales staff. *April 2000 TAŽ News*