We have thousands of paper files — how do we archive them? — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
Do not scan everything at once — that is how most archiving projects fail. Start only with patients active in the last two years, since those are the files you will actually need. The rest gets scanned on demand or stays in paper archive. And scanning without indexing is useless: a PDF image you cannot search by patient name is no better than the paper. Each file needs linking to the patient number in your system.
Scanning without indexing is a complete waste of money, and it is the commonest misdirected spend in archiving projects. A PDF image you cannot search by patient name or number is practically no different from the paper in the drawer — worse, in fact, because you paid and believed the problem solved. Every file must be linked to the patient number in your system, the visit date, and the document type.
And a phased scope is what succeeds: start only with patients from the last two years. Those are the files that will actually be requested, and they are a small fraction of the archive. The rest is scanned on demand — when an old patient returns, their file is scanned then and added. This spreads the cost and lets the project finish instead of stalling halfway, as most comprehensive archiving projects do.
And wherever the work touches patient data the Personal Data Protection Law applies in full — health data is sensitive, and any breach must be reported to SDAIA within 72 hours. The details live in the clinics section of this site, kept in one place so they stay correct and current.
- Scanning without indexing is spending with no benefit
- Link each file to patient number, visit date and document type
- Start with two years only; the rest on demand