Technology promises to deliever important advances in the way companies do business. Technology enchances efficiency and productivity while leading to a better quality of life. The medical care industry has long been at the forefront of technological innovation and this is displayed by the growth in electronic patient medical records.

Hospitals and health care providers can scan in existing paper medical records using OCR technology. Using software technology, they can create PDF files that are searchable. These searchable files can be stored on secured servers that can be only beviewed by those with the proper credentials. This technology is a win for doctors and patients alike.

This modern way of managing patient medical records helps compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as the HIPAA. This law requires that hospitals and health care providers maintain detailed patient medical records so that health records are accessible and portable.

There are naturally security concerns expressed about scanning health records, when patient medical records are archived on a computer connected to a network or intranet. To address these issues, the HIPAA requires that precautions must be taken to ensure the security and privacy of any electronic health records stored on the server. This is accomplished by securing both the server and the network from nefarious individuals.

The HIPAA also requires that health care providers and hospitals must implement a proper privacy policy to monitor who is gaining access to the health records as well as information on those who access the records. The policy must reflect the organizations policies and procedures for individual processes. This helps ensure the privacy of patient health records.

The advantages of capturing patient medical records, storing them on a secure server, and then tracking access to the records is that patients are able to receive better, more accurate health care while doctors are able to have much more data about the patient's medical history available to him. Everyone is the health care system benefits from this increased efficiency.