[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL7RQzBUMrM[/youtube]
UNM hospitals based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA lost medical records of 1 Lakh patients due to a fire in a warehouse complex. This was the warehouse where they had stored the records. This only goes to show how vulnerable hospitals are to such losses in the absence of a proper records management solution. Get smart. Get a good EDMS solution. Contact us on sales@rincon.co.in or call us on +91 22 61461616
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTsBw-0bgmg[/youtube]
The dangers of identity theft are well-publicized. We’ve all been asked to shred our documents, be on the lookout for phishing scams etc. But there is a new potential threat to our identity lurking in warehouses. We’re talking about copy machines.
“Copy machines today are just like computers,” explained Boston security expert Robert Siciliano. “They have hard drives and can store data that can be extracted.”
The video says it all.
This snippet appeared in the Mumbai edition of The Times of India dated August 29, 2011. Goes to show how quick and easy it is to access fax and it was God’s way of answering his devotee’s prayer VIA FAX.
Faith and diamonds
In just 11 years, Rama Shah, a Jain housewife from Sion, has created more than 1.5 lakh Ganesha idols, several of them with her eyes closed. Shah, a staunch devotee who boasts numerous national and international records for her talent, says her undying faith in Ganesha has helped several. Only recently, said Shah, it came to the rescue of a Gujarati businessman who had 13 packets full of diamonds with him.
He was on his way from Gujarat to Mumbai and was accosted by cops in Bandra during a nakabandi. They arrested him as he did not have a valid bill for the diamonds. A local diamond trader known to the businessman then phoned Shah, who is also a mohalla committee member, and sought her help, insisting that his acquaintance was innocent.
She immediately rushed to the police station where the businessman had been detained for more than 24 hours by now. Though they welcomed her, the cop said he would not be able to release the businessman unless relevant documents were produced. She nodded, stepped out and muttered a quick prayer to her favourite elephant-headed God. In what she calls a stroke of divine intervention, she saw a faxing shop. She decided to call up the shop in Gujarat, from where the diamond trader had made the purchases, and asked them to fax their records for the day. On receiving the document, which proved the businessman’s innocence, the cops released him. The man was deeply overwhelmed and wanted to reward the cops. But Shah, who recently made an idol dedicated to Anna Hazare, insisted that it would not be right to give them cash. “Since he wanted to express his gratitude in some way, I asked him to give them a diamond instead,” says Shah.
Most of us believe that our medical and other health related information is private and is protected. As an individual we supposedly can decide who can look at and receive the information like our insurers, employers or any other government health care agency. In India even though there is no clear rule / law which states what information can be shared in the public domain. The Privacy Bill, 2011 could be the initial step from the government on implementing some privacy act. Here is the news article that appeared in The Deccan Herald.
Getting this rule implemented calls the hospitals to review the existing security measures followed in safe guarding the patients’ health information. In short your health information shall be protected in a way that does not interfere with your health care. The health information cannot be shared without your written permission unless the law allows it but it is also necessary to keep a complete audit trail who has accessed the same to avoid any misuse. To view the analysis of the Privacy bill click here
“God sent children to enlarge our hearts, and to make us unselfish” was one of the writings that caught my attention during our visit to St. Joseph’s home as part of sharing our joy of completing 13 yrs of a journey called Team Rincon. This could be one of the reasons that Team Rincon again decided to spend sometime with under privileged children who need support and love like we did for our 12th year celebrations last year. This year we decided to sponsored lunch at two places – Shree Barbhaya Orphanage For Hindu Girls at Vile Parle and St. Joseph Society at Mumbay Central. The whole team decided to visit St Joseph’s to spend some time with the children there and plan to visit the Vile Parle orphanage sometime soon. We were all greeted and taken through the place by the two sisters and explained the routines and various activities of the children there. We also had a peek at the children’s creche as the little tots were sleeping. What I felt was that this was not a foster care centre but a true home to the children there. We were really touched by the care taken to all the inmates from the age group of 0 to 90. After spending some time there, we all proceeded to ‘Golden Star” a good and pure vegetarian Gujarati cum Rajasthani thali joint for lunch. As usual we all relished the various delicacies even if sweet and went back home with a mixed feeling of joy, gratitude and peace.
Contributed by Ashish Baby
Dr. Balabhai Nanavati Hospital, popularly known as Nanavati Hospital is one of the busiest hospitals in Mumbai with 400 beds and employing 1200 people. The TPA (Third Party Administrator) desk was buzzing with activity with relatives of the patients asking for updates on their cashless insurance process requests. The TPA desk was sending and receiving faxes manually and were fraught with the usual paper jams, mixed pages etc. Dr. Mahesh Shirke took the initiative and evaluated Zetafax and went ahead with the solution. The hospital is now saving a lot of time and resources by shifting to Zetafax. The nagging problem of documents not being received in time by TPA Agents stopped after deployment of Zetafax. The TPA desk staff now is less harried and can better allocate their time to more productive activities.
For the case study please click here.
Contributed by Jeeson Akkara and Sandeep Kaintura
Zetafax 2011 is the latest version of the award winning fax server software from Equisys. Delivering a range of benefits including support for the latest platforms and new features, Zetafax continues to be one of the world’s leading fax server products, installed in over 60,000 customer locations in over 100 countries.
Zetafax 2011 provides existing customers with the tools to make their business more efficient by providing a brand new add-on, product enhancements and support for the latest technologies. Please check this link for more information.
Zetafax 2011 introduces the new Fax Relay add-on for Zetafax, which allows users to send faxes from a fax machine in the office, with the fax being sent via the Zetafax Server. This means that paper faxes are included in the archive along with faxes sent via the Zetafax Client, which is important for organizations that require outbound communications to be archived for compliance or other management purposes. For more information and a link to the press release please click here.
A major telecom company warehouse in India had outsourced the storage and scanning of its Consumer Application Forms (CAFs) from 1996 onwards. This warehouse unfortunately caught fire in February this year. After this event, it was found that only 8 million forms had been scanned whereas 12 million unscanned forms had been destroyed. This was a major lapse. The incident not only highlighted the fact that important data had been lost completely, but also underscored the slow rate at which the digitisation of subscriber data was being carried out. Following this incident, the telecom service providers have been asked to ensure quick and time bound scanning of all CAFs, proper duplication of records with a mirror image in the archives, storage of the CAFs to have fireproof arrangements and secure from other hazards. (Refer to the news link http://bit.ly/hDH2MC and http://bit.ly/kh8MVP) Just ponder over the loss of imformation and the lack of records!! This would not have happened if all the documents were digitised regularly and stored in a good document management system.
Security of documents isn’t just about access. You have to ensure that your documents do not get misplaced, lost or damaged. Who hasn’t looked for hours through file cabinets to find the document(s) needed? Sometimes documents are misfiled; other times they are left on someone’s desk or the worst case scenario it could be lost due to pest attack or some natural calamities like flood, fire etc. Many people believe storing documents on their computer or on the company network is considered a form of document management. If the files stored in computer are not backed up and something were to happen to the hard drive, all information is lost. A true document management system ensures that your organization’s information is protected at all times, from natural disaster, catastrophe and corruption.
With a document management system, gone are the days of lost documents because they are all in a secure central electronic repository. Also gone are the days of wasted time because multiple people can retrieve documents from various locations and multiple file cabinets. With a document management system, the documents are immediately retrieved for the person looking for information. This not only makes them more productive for that one task, it shifts the focus from the document retrieval to solving the original issue. A good document management system’s aim is to provide everything you need to help your business run more efficiently, ensuring that you do not waste any unnecessary time and space maintaining your documents. It should also enable businesses to easily share and collaborate on documents in an efficient and productive way. A digital document management system is a great way to save time and take the first steps towards a paperless office.
Along with convenient document sharing and data protection, businesses can take advantage of full audit control, reduced storage requirements, put an end to photocopying / misplaced / lost documents. Meeting regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, SEC and FINRA can be a headache. If you use an EDM, many of the regulatory requirements are built right in, helping you become compliant. No matter what your organization does, you find yourself liable to maintain documents. A document management solution secures the documents that are critical to your business so you can remain accountable to your clients.
Contributed by Ashish Baby
Zetafax is the award winning fax server software from Equisys plc of UK that delivers secure, fast and cost effective document distribution. Simple to install, easy to manage and highly reliable, Equisys has a proven track record in providing businesses with complete fax server solutions that generate real cost savings whilst streamlining their business processes. This is why Zetafax is the proven choice of fax server for over 60,000 customers worldwide.
In this video, in just a minute and a half you will learn how simple it is to send a fax from Zetafax. The video is available here.