With many practices moving towards a paperless environment, the ability to scan documents directly into your practice management software is a valuable feature. Front Desk provides you the ability to scan directly into a patient file, saving time and effort.
To begin, please ensure you have installed the appropriate scanner drivers for your device. Front Desk is compatible with both TWAIN and WIA drivers, which covers the majority of scanners available. For assistance with driver installation please consult your user manual or manufacturer website.
With your scanner installed and ready for use, you can now configure Front Desk and begin scanning.
Open System Information and navigate to the Attachments tab.
In the Scanning section, select the Scanner Type and Default Attachment Scanner based on the drivers you installed and intend to use.
Please note TWAIN drivers are recommended as they typically handle the scanning of multi-page documents more reliably than WIA.
Once your preferences are set in System Information, you are now ready to scan documents directly into patient files.
Open the Attachments tab click the Scan button.
The scanner set in System Information will be selected by default, however this can be overwritten at the time of scanning by changing the Scanner Type and Source.
From the available Options, select your preferred scan Colour. The available colours may vary between scanners, but typically includes RGB, Grey Scale or Black & White.
Enabling Advanced Scanner Options will provide additional options based on your scanner software and drivers. This may include quality settings and additional colour options.
Select Use Sheet Feeder to scan pages from the document feeder of your device, as opposed to using the flatbed scanner. This is used when scanning multiple pages into a single document.
If supported by your scanner, the Double Sided Scanning option will scan both sides of a document when inserted into the sheet feeder. This option can only be selected when duplex scanning is an available feature on your device.
Enter a Date and Description for the attachment, then select whether to Save as a JPEG or PDF document. As a general rule, JPEG is better suited to images while PDF is better suited to text.
Click Scan button to begin the scanning process.
Once the document has been scanned, a preview of the document will appear in the Scanning window. Click OK to add the document as an attachment.
The document will now be available in the Attachments tab of the patient file. Double-clicking the attachment will open the file using your preferred program.
By selecting the attachment and clicking Edit you can change the date and description if needed. Additional Security options are also available from this window where access to the file can be restricted to specific users or groups.