PIP has been hosting Genie Medical Software for specialist medical practices, for over 20 years. Two cloud-based solutions are provided for – PIPs private Datacenters (private cloud) or Microsoft AZURE platform (public cloud). During this extended period we have developed many tricks, tips and practices to improve the Genie Scanning experience for all healthcare organizations. Not only for cloud based instances but for on premises Genie software installs, that PIP also support.

Genie Medical Hosted Scanning Vs On Premise Genie

When a healthcare provider, scans a patient document for Genie in an on premise setup, there are only two relatively simple tasks. Digitizing the patient information in our hands and then attaching this patient record it to the patients medical history in the Genie software.

This can be achieved either via a two step procedure :-  a team member scans it to a central location. Then the medical professional attaches this document in Genie to a patients medical history.

Or a single step procedure, whereby the Doctor utilizes the Genie scanning interface, often during the patients medical appointment and scans directly from the Doctors Workstation to Genie and the patient details.

When we want to scan to our cloud based Genie software, we complicate this procedure. Users may only be connected to the Genie servers via mobile devices with a mobile app this limits their ability to scan directly. Users may be consulting form home or practicing at other healthcare providers surgeries and/or hospitals. Even staff members at our medical offices with workstations, require the document to be digitized AND transported to the datacenter where the Genie Servers are and then attached injected into the Genie software. In the cloud instance we are trying to achieve three jobs with the least amount of effort and one of these jobs is highly variable (the transporting to the cloud) depending on where and how you are connect to your cloud Genie instance. Requiring technical skills and thought to provide ease of use solutions for patient management scanning.

Genie Scan Size

The most important factor for scanning into Genie is the scan size. This is relevant for either a cloud based Genie or an on-premise Genie setup. All electronic health records you scan to Genie reside in the Genie Database. These patient records take up space and slow down the overall speed of your Genie Medical system. Ensuring we only scan what we need, and keep these scans to a minimal file size is essential.

Genie recommends a file size of 30kb – 100kb / page.

If utilizing the ImagePro scanning interface provided in the Genie software this file size can be limited in this interface. These settings can be found in the “Special -> ImagePro Control” Menu. These settings are computer independent, which means you must ensure that all cloud computers have the same setting set for all office staff.

I highly recommend making the file size as small as you can, providing the smallest footprint for patient data, ensuring the best performance of your entire Genie system. For assistance on fine tuning and achieving the best way to manage your document sizes please contact your account representative.

Genie Scanning using port emulation software

One of the simplest ways to ensure efficient and trouble free scanning is to utilize port emulation software. This software provides a conduit between your devices connection and your Genie cloud servers. By using  port emulation software, the ports on your device, typically your USB, appear on your cloud server as being attached to it. Thereby the cloud servers “think” they have your locally attached scanner attached to them. Under this setup, healthcare staff and/or Doctors can scan directly from their workstation to Genie from within Genie, just as you would with the on-premise setup.

PIP recommends and uses the TS Scan Software by Terminal Works.

However there are many software options available for this task and are happy to support our users on any port emulation software they prefer to use.

Genie Scanning using VPN.

Many of our larger clients who utilize Genie Practice Management Software, have larger central, network scanners. Typically these medical practices have dedicated administrative staff to perform the bulk of scanning. Under this scenario, it may be easier to have all the files scanned in bulk and stored in a repository for latter retrieval and patient association.

We achieve this utilizing a VPN (virtual private network) to join the location of the scanners to the datacenter. This type of connection provides a secure, encrypted transfer medium which us required for the healthcare industry to transport scanned files to the repository.

Bespoke Genie Scanning methods.

Having your Genie Medical system hosted in the cloud provides a central and extremely flexible solution technically. PIP can tailor a scanning solution around your specific needs and workflows. The idea of PIP hosting your Genie is to ensure this software performs at its best both in terms of up time AND workflow. If your current Genie scanning solution is not seamless, either cloud based or on-premise, please contact our friendly staff @ PIP.