Franklin Parish Medical Center: HIPAA-Compliant Medical Records
How a community hospital in Winnsboro, Louisiana keeps more than 250,000 pages of medical records in LaserFiche — HIPAA-compliant and retrievable in seconds.
Case study
Franklin Parish Medical Center · Winnsboro, Louisiana
When Franklin Parish Medical Center put its medical records into LaserFiche, complying with the record-keeping side of HIPAA proved notable for one thing: how easy it was. The hospital added the LaserFiche Audit Trail module at exactly the right moment — when its database of medical-record images had grown large enough to start sharing files with other departments and medical professionals.
The challenge
Hospital records never stand still. Patient charts and medical paperwork arrive every day, and Franklin Parish's paper archive had grown until five portable storage buildings held the overflow — the very problem that originally pushed the hospital toward LaserFiche. At the same time, HIPAA's record-keeping requirements demanded strict, provable control over medical records, just as the hospital's digital database had grown large enough that files would begin moving between departments and medical professionals.
The solution
Franklin Parish Medical Center built its medical-records database in LaserFiche, then added the LaserFiche Audit Trail module — a step its team had planned from the start, timed for when the database of medical-record images was large enough to start sharing files with other departments and medical professionals. With Audit Trail in place, the hospital had the documented tracking HIPAA compliance calls for.
LaserFiche quickly became part of daily care. Emergency-room doctors review incoming patients' records in LaserFiche instead of chasing paper charts. And an intensive scanning program, put together by assistant Judy Ogden, set out to bring all remaining archives into LaserFiche within three years.
The results
At the time of this story, Franklin Parish Medical Center had more than 250,000 pages of medical records in LaserFiche — including all active files going back a full year. Audit Trail gave the hospital confidence that its records would stay in compliance with HIPAA moving forward. As the scanning program brings the remaining archives into LaserFiche, the hospital will be able to remove the five portable storage buildings that started it all — and any record is retrieved in seconds, not in a storage building.
Ready to make your records HIPAA-compliant?
Call 225-273-3969 or tell us about your files — we'll map the fastest route from paper charts to compliant, searchable digital records.