What brand/model ADF scanners are others finding success with in their office? I am primarily trying to find one with Linux compatibility. Our office is 100% open source now and I am pleased with the performance of our OpenSuse 10.3 desktops. However, what is frustrating is peripheral compatibility. I am having a heck of a time trying to get a HP P1006 Laser Jet driver installed right now. Next I need to add an ADF scanner for paper chart scanning. Thanks!
I applaud your achievement in having your office 100% open source, I would like to be there myself, but I find that having one Windows Computer with a SAMBA share saves me a lot of time, effort and frustration.
I have my Windows Box attached to my Scanner with ADF. I then access the files across the newtork. I do this because I have had issues with drivers when I have upgraded kernels, and it is simply a more efficient use of my time to not have to worry about these issues. In addition the features that come with the ADF when attached to windows are excellent.
In my opinion it is simply the path of least resistance. I use a Canon ImageClass MF6550 which has an ADF, and does duplex scanning. It comes with tools to allow Color, B&W, or Greyscale, Allows me to save it as PDF, image, or do OCR. It works very nicely and I use it to Image all insurance EOB’s, letters, reports, etc. I am in the process of making my office as paperless as possible. I know of no linux packages that have all of these features. The fact that it is also a copier / printer / fax machine is a major bonus.
Thanks Michael. It was quite a task migrating off of XP but well worth it! I agree with you regarding “the features that come with the ADF when attached to windows are excellent.” I experimented with my Epson Photo Scanner and noticed that the Epson Windows software features were lacking on the Linux compatible Epson software. I was able to scan a document to PDF but it was not as straight forward as the Windows equivalent. All I need my ADF to do is scan our paper charts to PDF. I can get by without the Windows bells and whistles - although they would still be nice to have. I am looking at a refurbished Epson GT2500 from the Epson Clearance Center. It’s capacity is 50 pages and should be sufficient for me.
I really hate the idea of putting an XP machine back on the floor. I might experiment with VM Ware and XP on a virtual machine first.
I am in the process of establishing “best practices” for going paperless and was wondering if you or anyone wouldn’t mind sharing what is working well in your office.
1.) When a new patient comes into our office there are paper forms that we have them fill out and sign. My idea is to scan them to PDF and attach them to their chart. I was curious though if it is necessary to have the original hard copy stored, especially for legal purposes? This would defeat the purpose of a paperless office. However I would still have easy access to the info if it is in the EMR.
2.) Did you scan all of your pre-OpenEMR charts?
3.) After scanning pre-OpenEMR patient charts can/should they be shredded?
Depending on the size of your office you may end up needing to go with one of the scan-capable larger photocopiers/multifunction devices. Many of those which are able to scan are able to scan to TIF or PDF and send the results to any of an SMB/Windows share, an FTP server, or to one or more email addresses.
Unfortunately I’m not aware of any smaller models that are able to do the same, even if they connect directly to the network.
Thanks for the suggestion Alan. This sounds like a good solution. If it is a network device I could send the results to a SMB share on my Linux server and this would avoid the need to keep a windows machine for scanning. Do you have a brand/model that you could recommend?
I finally solved my scanning problem!! I bought a Brother-MFC7820N laser scanner/copy/fax with a ADF from Micro Center. It cost $249.99 and was far less expensive than some of the higher end scanners I thought that I needed for the office. I installed VM Ware Server and run XP bare bones to utilize Brother’s windows XP scanning software . I use it as a network scanner rather than USB. It it much easier to work with networked devices than USB on virtual machines I discovered. I have the scanner software configured to scan right to PDF (so there is no need for us to use Paper Port) into a Samba share. Once in PDF format the file is ready to upload to OpenEMR. The scanner also works with Xsane on Linux however I found Brother’s XP software to be more user friendly with nicer features ( “In addition the features that come with the ADF when attached to windows are excellent” - Michael’s point from previous post). I have been experimenting with trying to get Brother’s XP software to work on Wine so that I do not have to keep XP as a virtual machine but have not been successful. Running XP in a virtual machine is not a bad second option. In fact, I noticed that it runs faster/better on Linux.