Pull Charts for 6-12 Months
Going paperless is a process not an event. At first you will need the paper charts on all your patients as you will be referring to the previous paper entries. As time goes on you will need to refer less and less to the old paper records. After a year all the current x-rays will be digital and all the patients recent entries and treatment plans should be digital. It is now possible to stop pulling charts. However at first you will need to refer to the old charts fairly often for entries or x-rays more than a year old. Eventually you will rarely ever need to pull a chart.
Do not try and scan all the old records.
Many dentists believe that in order to go paperless they must convert all their old records. This is a huge, time consuming and expensive task with a very limited benefit.
At most you may wish to scan the most recent records of patients who are currently under treatment.
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