Superior Equipment & Technology

We use only the highest quality professional scanners available on the market. Our medical grade scanners come with state-of-the-art features that enable us to provide you with top quality digital images. In addition, we use our own proprietary technology to control, streamline and automate all our scanning operations, from A to Z – ScanFactory Resource Planning (SRP). It was developed entirely in-house by our expert personnel. Its main purpose is to reduce human intervention to an absolute minimum and remove the risk of human error. This highly sophisticated, one-of-a-kind technology offers complete traceability and provides full real-time reporting functionality.

Customer Portal

The Customer Portal allows you to search for and consult the status of every single patient file processed by ScanFactory at any point in time (e.g. In Transport, In Scanning, etc.). The Portal also makes it possible to make requests for urgent scanning (delivered within 1 hour maximum) or physical delivery of a particular patient file, and view full history of such requests. All information and metadata about every single patient file, including its exact physical location, are stored in the SRP database and can be retrieved on-demand.

Medical Record Scanning Process

All stages of the medical record scanning proccess are controlled entirely by our SRP, including quality control, human resource allocation and our high-end document scanners. It is a clear and fully transparent step-by-step process that guarantees superior quality and full confidentiality:

Pick-up, Transport & Intake at Our Facilities

We pick up your medical records and prepare them for transport to our facilities. Our personnel arrive at your site, register all documents in SRP, put them in specially designed archive boxes, assign a unique barcode to each box, and stack them on sealed europallets. The moment a patient file is registered, iGuana and your staff can trace the exact physical location of each box and the processing stage of each medical file in real time via the SRP. Sealed europallets containing your medical records are then transported in a sealed vehicle to the iGuana facility. All transports are dedicated, meaning that no items other than your patient files are transported at any one time to guarantee full confidentiality and security. When your registered patient files arrive at iGuana and the integrity of all seals is confirmed, we scan barcodes on every single box and assign each box a unique location in our warehouse. This information is automatically stored in our SRP system.

Preparation & Scanning

We prepare your medical files for scanning along strict guidelines. File folders, staples and paper clips are removed, if necessary, file / document separation pages and/or toggle pages are inserted to give special instructions to the scanner, etc. All your patient files are scanned according to scanner settings pre-defined in the SRP system for your specific project. Scanning is controlled entirely by the SRP system and the risk of human error is essentially reduced to zero. Image quality is guaranteed by sophisticated scanner hardware and technology (see Quality Control & Image Enhancement).

Indexing & Classification

The SRP platform automatically classifies and recognizes the incoming document stream. It identifies all content types and leverages 4 classification technologies: image-based, text-based, separation page-based and rule-based. It also identifies, sorts and separates documents with multiple pages and uses various recognition technologies, such as OCR, ICR, OMR and barcode recognition. Data are either automatically extracted or manually indexed using double-keying methods. Automated and manual verification checks are performed to ensure data accuracy. All images and their metadata (image size, dpi, compression, and many other image-related data) are stored directly in the SRP database.

Quality Control & Image Enhancement

A set of clearly defined procedures governs every single step of our scanning operations, from Pick-up to Metadata & Image Delivery. Every action taken in relation to your medical records is tracked in the SRP system in real time. Our document scanners have built-in image quality control features, such as Perfect Page technology, blank page removal, double feed detection, Dual Stream scanning, Intelligent Quality Control, iThresholding, auto-deskew, etc. The Image Enhancement module in our SRP system utilizes a 16-core server dedicated exclusively to post-scan image processing and performs a series of complex algorithmic image enhancement tasks. In addition to numerous manual quality checks, our Quality Supervisor is also automatically notified by the SRP of any quality issues detected by SRP’s sophisticated quality control algorithms.

Last but not least, our employees are trained to apply ISO 9001 Quality Management principles in all their work.

Metadata & Image Delivery

Delivery of images and metadata can be done via a Direct File Transfer method (VPN) or External Storage Device method (e.g. encrypted Hard Disk, USB sticks, etc.). You decide which option suits you best. Delivery is a fully automated process governed entirely by SRP. During scanning, all scanned images and metadata are stored directly in the SRP database. These images and metadata are automatically exported from SRP without any human intervention whatsoever. As a result, you have virtually unlimited flexibility in choosing your preferred image and metadata file formats, such as:

• JPEG, TIFF, PDF & PDF/A
• Structural metadata XML or CSV file
• DICOM for X-rays (ready for import into any PACS / RIS system)

Certified Destruction

All physical patient files are kept in quarantine (sealed storage) for a standard period of 1 month from the day scanned documents and metadata are delivered to you. This gives you the opportunity to perform your own quality control. Upon expiration of the quarantine period and your express approval, all quarantined documents are subjected to secure confidential destruction using Security Level P3, DIN 66399 standard. Once physical documents are destroyed, all scanned images and metadata are erased from our SRP system. You receive a confidential destruction certificate.