All About Engagement: Epson Helps ECR Vault Offer Optometrists and Their Clients an Outstanding Experience

“If I can get rid of a task that takes up 30 percent of my day without losing anything of value, I can put that time to better care for my clients.”

Tom Tyler, sales director for ECR Vault, a document management application for optometrists, is referring to the amount of time many practices spend managing paper-based patient records—time that ECR Vault can eliminate.

“Studies have shown that it takes seven minutes, on average, just to retrieve a single patient record,” he explains. Add up the time the managers, billers, administrative assistants and doctor spend shuffling through that paper and the result is enormous, making up roughly 30% of everyone’s work week.

“Imagine getting rid of all that wasted time. Everyone in the practice will have almost a third more time to serve the patient, improve treatment, and improve communications.”

Crucial to this process is a way to convert paper to electronic files. Tyler and his team have included a document scanner with ECR Vault since 2008, but in 2018 switched to the Epson DS-530 color duplex document scanner, initially because of its price. The DS-530 II color duplex document scanner, with upgraded paper feed technologies including dirt detection and paper protection, has since been added to Epson’s portfolio of document scanner offerings.

“The DS-530 does everything the other competitive scanners do and is every bit as reliable and easy to use,” Tyler explains. “We started incorporating the Epson scanner because we could buy it for less than half what we paid for the previous scanning solution, and in turn, cut the cost significantly for the customer. But that was just part of the story.”

Fast and Secure

ECR Vault, designed and sold by Milner Technologies, is a certified partner of the leading provider of practice management solutions in the eye care industry. ECR Vault integrates with various EMR/EHR products to scan, index and access patient records in moments. Its clients range from single-office practices up to national eyewear chains.

“There are numerous documents required in the eye care industry,” Tyler says. Medical records, medical histories, diagnoses, patient communications, communications with other providers, insurance, billing, Medicare, Medicaid and patient IDs can all be included in each file.

“What we do is make all these documents easily available to the doctor and staff,” he explains. “One key is giving the doctor quick access while with a patient reviewing images or tests.” Another is encryption, which is required by HIPPA for all electronic patient records. “All document management solutions have some kind of document capture, but few are HIPPA-compliant like ours.”

When a practice goes paperless for the first time, there’s always a backlog of patient records that must be converted to electronic form. Yet with ECR Vault and the DS-530 scanner, it takes less time to scan a patient file than to use it in paper form for a single visit.

To convert the documents, a staff member typically puts the entire file into the Epson automatic document feeder, then presses ‘scan.’ The DS-530 scans up to 50 pages of mixed sizes and thicknesses at one time, senses whether each page is in color or black and white, and skips blank pages. It saves a PDF copy of each document that includes an image of each page plus its optically recognized text, which ECR Vault can use later for a keyword search. It even names each document automatically based on key information in the document. Once the scan is finished, the operator removes the stack of documents, then chooses a category for each, which will determine how it’s indexed by the software.

“Let’s say a patient record has 45 pages,” Tyler explains. “It takes the scanner less than 90 seconds to process the entire file, and the user takes another 90 seconds to categorize individual documents or groups of documents. So about two to two-and-a-half minutes to scan and archive them versus seven minutes just to refile.”

As a practice becomes more comfortable with the process, Tyler adds, staff will scan the files they need that day plus the ones immediately before and after each of them in the cabinet. And most will shred the finished files.
“That way, they get through all of their paper files quickly and efficiently, and they can recapture enough real estate to add another office or exam room,” he says.

The scanner remains crucial, even after the old files are captured. “Though we are living in a digital age, businesses still rely on paper,” Tyler says. “Every regulation seems to require a new document, which requires a signature. Fortunately, once a document is signed, we can scan it and add it to the electronic record, which is all we need for an audit trail.”

Switching to Epson

Tyler says he had been selling a leading scanner brand since he started at Milner Technologies nearly 30 years ago. But in 2018, he was working on a very large deal where the price of that scanner was a roadblock.

“I was at a conference in Augusta, Georgia, where I met Bill Gates from Epson, and he showed me the DS-530.” Gates sent a sample over to his office, and Tyler gave it to his technical team.

“No doubt I ruffled some feathers when I suggested we switch to Epson,” Tyler says. “But our team put it through its paces and were very comfortable with it, and it gave us an opportunity to sell more software.”

One of the attractions of switching to Epson was their three-year limited warranty₁ and next-business-day replacement,² which clients really appreciate. “Whenever one of our old scanners failed, it always seemed to happen at the most inopportune time. With Epson, our clients are comfortable knowing they can have a replacement model the next business day, and they don’t even have to save their box.”

Still, after three years of offering Epson, Tyler says he has yet to use the limited warranty or replacement service. “The only hiccup we’ve had was a single unit that acted quirky, and the Epson technicians solved that with a phone call.” Even that incident pointed out another, very important advantage of dealing with Epson as a CapturePro partner.

“If we have a product or a technical question, Bill and his people respond immediately. We don’t have to send multiple emails or search the website—we just call and get an answer,” Tyler adds. “I’m afraid that’s not the standard for other players anymore. Epson is far more proactive and forthcoming than our other suppliers. If we need an answer, we get an email and then a follow-up call as well.

“The key to our success at ECR Vault is patient engagement. We streamline the process so the doctor can spend more time face to face with the patient explaining what needs to be done, making him or her feel comfortable and cared about.”

In the same way, Epson is helping make Tyler and his staff more comfortable, saving them time and enabling them focus on their clients. “We started with Epson because of the cost, but we’ve gotten far more—a great product that’s extremely reliable, and level of engagement and support from a partner that’s hard to come by these days.”

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1 For more information, go to www.epson.com/3yearscannerwarranty.
2 Subject to limited warranty terms and conditions. Expedited shipping not available in all areas. Road Service orders must be in by 3 p.m. Eastern Time for Next-Business-Day delivery.

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