Medical Office 
A Prescription For Organization
"Our patients are living with major, life-threatening illnesses," says Linda McKee, who manages an oncologist's office, "and having their files ready for them when they get here is one of the ways we show them we care for them. It's bad enough that in this malpractice-happy era the legal implications can be staggering, but even worse, nothing hurts a patient's feelings more -- there's nothing more insulting to a patient -- than having to admit we can't find his or her chart."
That rarely happens to McKee, because when she set up her physician's office fifteen years ago, she started out with a system from Smead. "Mis-files happen," she says. "People make mistakes. But with a Smead color-coded system , we catch them really quickly. The color-coding tells us instantly that a file is out of place."
How does color-coding save you time?
"We see anywhere from 35-50 patients a day," says McKee, "and we're a relatively small office. A larger practice will see hundreds of patients a day. Every patient you see has a chart, and that chart has to be refiled. Can you imagine what it's like at the end of the day if you have to think about where each file goes? With the color-coding, not only is it a no-brainer, but you can organize your charts according to the colors before you file them. The "As" are always blue, for example; all the "Hs" are orange. It's a pre-filing time-saver. You just stack the charts according to the colors, and take it from there. It saves an enormous amount of time."
"How did you know about Smead?" a visitor asks. "Everybody in the medical field knows about Smead," McKee replies with a quizzical look. "Well, how did you know what sort of system you wanted?"
Should you use an alpha or numeric system?
McKee says that she asked the doctor next door. "His office manager used a numerical system , but that seemed like more of a hassle than we really wanted." Why? Well, the doctor next door believed that the numerical system guaranteed confidentiality -- and it does, actually -- but every time you need a chart, you have to go look at the Rolodex™ to find the number. For McKee's office, which is fairly small, the alphabetical system works best because it's easier. You eliminate that extra step. And it makes training new staff much less painful. Of course, they have to be able to alphabetize. "If you can't alphabetize, this is not the field for you," says McKee. "And you have to remember the year label , too."
How does the year label help?
McKee or a member of her staff labels each file with the year that patient was last seen. "It's wonderful, that with the treatments we have these days, many of our patients live for a long time. We have files here going back to 1983. The year labels really helped us last year, when we moved 86 boxes of patient charts off-site. We knew at a glance which files we wanted to move. We looked at the year code, and culled every chart that had had no activity since 1994. If those files hadn't been dated, we'd have had to open each chart and look to find out when we last saw that patient. It would have been very difficult. It was hard enough as it was, with 86 boxes going out the door..."
What if a patient's name changes?
"That happens all the time," says McKee, "and again, it's a testament to the treatments we have now, that people survive and get married and change their names. When a name changes, we change the color code. It's really simple. Then we put a clear label protector over that, to protect it. These files get subjected to a lot of rough handling, so the durability factor matters a lot to us. Smead products wear really well."
Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2007 by the Smead Manufacturing Company