Using PDF's of Medical Records to your Advantage
Using PDF’s of medical records can save a lot of time, money and effort. Compared to hard copies, PDF’s can even be preferable - especially if you utilize the services of a legal nurse consultant with PDF editing abilities, such as myself.
Although I am happy to work with physical copies of records, these days my clients usually send me PDF's of the records. I am very comfortable working with PDF’s, and can use PDF editing software to make them much more user-friendly for you and your experts.
Advantages of using PDF’s
There are some obvious advantages of using PDF’s:
• No additional copying costs
• No mailing / delivery service costs
• Send with the click of a button, instead of packing and mailing
• Instant availability vs waiting for delivery
• Saves office space
• Access quickly on the computer vs hunting around for the medical binders
There are also some not so obvious advantages of using PDF’s:
• To make things easy to find in the PDF, I can quickly and easily add tabs/bookmarks (such as medical tabs or dates of doctor visits). Bookmarking the PDF makes a huge difference in functionality and ease of use. Click here for an example of what a bookmarked medical record PDF would look like.
• I can add highlights and comments to a medical record PDF, to make it easier for the attorney to find the information they're looking for, and understand how it relates to their case.
• With OCR (optical character recognition), one can copy and paste directly from the records. This is especially helpful when doing chronologies and summaries.
• OCR also makes the PDF searchable, ie. find words or phrases within the document.
• Bates stamps can be added to all the pages with a click of a button.
Tips for PDF’s
To maximize the advantages of using PDFs, here are some tips:
1) Most commercial copiers these days have the ability to create PDF’s - use it. That way you might only need to run the records through the copier once, and then send PDF’s and/or make physical copies from the PDF file as needed.
2) Most commercial copiers these days also have OCR ability - use it, for the reasons above. If someone knows how to adjust settings, I’d recommend at least 200-300 PPI (pixels per inch). The higher the PPI, the better OCR will work. If you don’t have the ability to do OCR on the PDF’s, I can do this for you.
3) For large file size PDF’s (> 3-4 MB), I’d suggest sending via a cloud service, as opposed to email. A large PDF can clog up email or might even be rejected. One cloud service my clients like is Dropbox - it's free, easy to use, reliable, and secure.
4) Have a separate PDF file for each health care provider and a separate PDF for their billing. For a very lengthy hospitalization, consider making a separate PDF for each type of document (i.e. all Progress notes, all Nursing, all X-rays, etc.).
5) If you anticipate sending PDF’s to experts, consider first having the records properly organized, then make PDF’s of the organized records. If there are just a few records, I could do this with my PDF editing software. However, if there are a lot records and especially for hospitalization records, it’s usually more efficient to hand-organize the physical copies first. Properly organized records will allow your medical experts to review the case faster and easier, and can therefore save the attorney hundreds of dollars.
6) If you anticipate sending PDF’s to experts, let me add tabs/bookmarks (such as medical tabs or dates of doctor visits). This will make reviewing the records so much easier and quicker for an expert (or an attorney). If the records are already fairly well organized, I can do this in a short amount of time; and again, it can save you money in the long run.
7) Especially when sending PDF’s to experts, make sure you have started with clean, legible copies and that the records are as complete as necessary. Oftentimes, your initial records may be missing critical documents. I can help you determine this.