Scanner Recommendation

[asanders]

I'm looking for a scanner for the office. Something fast and easy to use. We will be scanning EOB's, letters, etc. No x-rays, photos, etc.

I've read a little bit and it seems that I want something that uses TWAIN as that will import directly into OD. Anyone have a recommendation?

-Sanders

[jclaydds]

Since you are looking for a scanner for paper (EOB's Letters, Etc), I would highly recommend the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 (Cost is just over $400). I have two of these and another similar one (older model) and they are wonderful. These are not flat bed scanners. They are built so you can load multiple pages in them and they scan very rapidly. They are quite reliable and have a compact footprint on your desk. First, you need to understand that they are not TWAIN compliant but outputs the scans in PDF format. It appears that the next version of Open Dental (Version 7.0) is going to have a PDF viewer built in according to what is posted in the feature request section. This will speed up the viewing of PDF documents (won't be any delay while you wait for Adobe Reader to load). Thanks, Jordan for adding this feature. Many of us have been anxiously awaiting the built in PDF viewer.

It is true that a scanner has to be TWAIN compliant to scan directly into Open Dental. At this time, Open Dental does not support multiple page scanning. If you want to scan directly into Open Dental, you need a TWAIN compliant scanner and it has to be only one page at a time. There is a feature request that is high up on the list requesting mulitple page scanning in Open Dental but we don't have any idea if or when that feature might be available.

If you use the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500, you can scan multiple pages at one time. For example, we scan all our EOB's that come in on a particular day into a single file. If you want the documents that you scan in Open Dental, you must use the import function in the Image Section. It is an extra step but MUCH easier than scanning in one page at a time. For instance, we are moving toward being paperless. We take all of our pages of treatment notes from the last 25 years on a particular patient. We load them in the scanner and scan them into a single file. We then import that file into the Open Dental Image section. If I want to look at the patient's past treatment notes, it is simple to click on this file in the image section and we can see all the pages of notes from their past. Since Open Dental doesn't support multiple page scanning yet, it would not be possible to do this even with a TWAIN compliant scanner.

To further confuse matters, Fujitsu makes a TWAIN scanner that is similar to ScanSnap S1500. The TWAIN compliant scanner that I am speaking of is a model Fi6130. I have one of those as well. It is not as user friendly since there are a lot more output options that you have to figure out. With the ScanSnap S1500 -- you don't have a lot of choices. All it will output is a PDF document and therefore makes it simpler to use. The other disadvantage to the Fi6130 is that it costs twice as much (Cost is just over $800).

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

[asanders]

Thanks for the response. So, if OD is able to support multiple page scanning in the future, would it be wise to acquire a TWAIN scanner or will the 1500 suffice? Trying to figure this out.

[jclaydds]

Yes, I would assume that if Open Dental supported multiple page scanning, a TWAIN scanner would be best simply because you could scan directly into Open Dental. We don't find it difficult to import the PDF files but it is an extra step and it does take a few seconds to go through the steps to import it.

I was reading in the Open Dental section of the Dental Town website last night and someone there identified a Fujitsu Scanner there that was TWAIN compliant and was in the $500+ range instead of the one I mentioned in the $800+ range. The thread had the word "scanner" in it so it shouldn't be hard to find. If you are investigating all this, it may be good to read those posts as well.

[drtbar]

I went paperless a few months after I started using opendental (year and a half ago) and what I did was bought a brother 8860dn all in one printer and an epson v700 scanner for the xrays. The brother scan duplex and I would really caution you to scanning all of a patient's history into one document. Yes it will save a lot of time getting it into opendental, but when you want to look back at work completed or whatever it may be, it may be impossible to find. It's not going to be all that often that you are going to go back, but if you have to sift through one document for everything you just aren't going to do it imho. That being said you can always split that one document up later to the individual catagories.

What I loved about opendental (and what caused me to switch to it) was how the history was catagorized. I had two girls scanning in between patients (approximately 1500 patients charts that go back about 25 years) and put health histories in, previous services rendered sheets, xrays, treatment plans, perio charts, and RECENT EOBs. It's sometimes surprising what they scanned in. As a rule, if it was in their chart, it's in opendental. And they were catagorized at the time of scanning. A lot of work... yes, but it is only done once.

The best part was clearing out all the charts and shredding them. A LOT of extra space

[drschulman]

I am fairly computer/scanner illiterate, so please forgive me if this is of no help!!!!!! But we purchased 2 Ambir Travelscaners (pro600) for the front desk to scan in letters from specialists and insurance cards and treatment notes and what have you! We are in the process of slowly going paperless. It works really well and was really cheap! The first one we purchased from Ambir at around 100$ and the second one on overstock for about 95$ ....We have been really happy with them and they do scan directly to my images tab in Open Dental! My only complaint is that I wish some of the stuff in the images tab would show up in the progress notes....my doctor likes to see if we received a specialist letter directly in there!!! Hope this helps!!

[atd]

You can specify which image folders show in the Chart Module. Go to Setup->Definitions. Click on Image Categories. Double-click the category and check the "Show in Chart Module" box.

I wish we could have images show in the family module as well (i.e. intake and insurance forms). If you agree, vote for request #763.

[jordansparks]

In version 7.0, images that are in certain user-defined categories will be available in the new "patient forms list". This list will quickly pop up using a button in the common toolbar that is visible in all modules. The images in this list would typically include registration forms, med hx, HIPAA, etc. But you could include whichever categories you want. So you might not need to vote for that request if you decide to include insurance forms in that list.

Also, that new list will include sheets that are of the "patient form" type. Sheets and images intermingled in one list. The feature is complete, although the sheets will not be fillable until a subsequent version.