Case Studies

Mercy has a rich history of serving the need for healthcare education and had cabinets of historical student records to maintain. The records were stored solely in paper form and dated back to the 1920’s. Some of these paper records were so fragile that in a short time the original documents would be illegible and/or disintegrated completely.

As an institutional initiative, Mercy moved forward on a plan to digitize all historical records. Their primary goals were to mitigate any further degradation of historical student documents, free-up space occupied by the file cabinets housing the paper records, and create a more efficient storage and retrieval system for student records.

When exploring their options for a document scanning solution, Mercy’s Registrar, Heather Hoppe, was attracted to RADIX because of it’s tight integration with their EMPOWER student information system. With the RADIX link in their EMPOWER system, scanned records are now accessible directly from the EMPOWER interface, creating a seamless and efficient user experience.

“Retrieving student documents used to require running to another room to search through file cabinets,” says Hoppe. “Our customer service has improved enormously and I estimate we save 30 minutes per day for one employee by no longer filing and retrieving paper.”

In addition to the efficiency provided by RADIX, securing student information was a key driver of the paperless initiative. The paper files residing in cabinets are now secured in the RADIX digital repository and accessible only through a login and password administrated by the Registrar. Using RADIX as their “digital file cabinet” also eliminates lost or misfiled documents, greatly improving their ability to serve the needs of their students and alumni.

Ultimately, Mercy has a goal of implementing RADIX campus-wide and becoming virtually paperless. The next step for the institution is to move across other departments and eliminate paper backfile. After that, the Admissions Office will start scanning day-forward student records and eliminate all paper in the Admissions process before it is distributed to the rest of the college. Currently, the Nursing Department is also looking at adopting the system to store and retrieve all student health records.

In order to roll-out an institutional paper-to-digital transition, Mercy recognized the need for a long-term plan and strong implementation team. Imagetek installed and trained all staff on their initial RADIX scanning and document management system in less than a month.

“The ease of training and implementation of the document imaging system has made the project very worthwhile,” says Hoppe. “We truly cannot believe how easy it is to use, and we are very appreciative for the time we have been given for training and thorough explanation!”

As Mercy grows their adoption of RADIX across the institution, Imagetek’s trademarked Automate. Integrate. Accelerate.™ methodology will help them adapt their processes with the least amount of disruption to their daily activity and financial resources.