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Healthcare Providers · Health information management
Outside records flood acute and ambulatory care organizations from every direction, fax, eFax, portals, email, scanning and file drops, often as mixed packets and merged PDFs. DataBank helps HIM teams standardize document types and indexing, route only true exceptions for review, and deliver usable content into existing workflows.
Document types we handle
The short answer
HIM teams reduce rework by automatically classifying and indexing outside records as they arrive, across every channel they come in on, and routing only genuinely uncertain items to a person for review. Outside records handled this way become usable EHR content on arrival, instead of creating days of manual splitting, typing and re-indexing before anyone can file them.
Outside records indexing automation is the capture, classification and indexing of outside medical records, arriving as fax, eFax, portal uploads, email attachments, scans and file drops, so they’re usable in the EHR without manual splitting and re-indexing.
Who it’s for
HIM leadership and health information management teams at acute and ambulatory care organizations.
What changes
HIM staff review only true exceptions, instead of touching every outside record that arrives.
Proof
See the real indexing-accuracy and savings results this approach already delivers. See the results
A mixed packet, Monday morning
It breaks down the moment a mixed packet lands in the queue, before anyone even knows what’s inside it.
A fax arrives overnight: 40 pages from a referring specialist’s office, several patients and several document types merged into one file. Before anyone can file a page of it, an HIM staffer has to open it, split it apart, and figure out what each page actually is.
By the time that packet is sorted and indexed, two more have arrived behind it, one from a portal upload, one scanned at the front desk. Each one needs the same manual splitting and typing, and no two packets look quite the same.
Record volume keeps growing. The HIM team doesn’t. A clinician requests a specific outside record ahead of an appointment, and someone has to go hunting for the right pages inside a backlog that’s growing faster than anyone can clear it.
The document pattern
Every packet moves through three stages: mixed-packet intake, inconsistent typing and indexing, and a backlog that outpaces staffing. Each stage has a friction point, and each friction point has a downstream cost.
Friction
Outside records arrive as fax, eFax, portal uploads, email attachments, scans and file drops, often as mixed packets and merged PDFs with several document types bundled into one file.
Cost: Manual splitting
Every bundle has to be split and sorted by hand before HIM staff can even begin filing it.
Friction
Document types and indexing vary record to record and team to team, with no single consistent standard applied as records come in.
Cost: Rework and exceptions
Variability turns into extra touches and a growing exception queue, not a one-time fix.
Friction
Outside record volume keeps rising faster than HIM departments can hire or train staff to process it manually.
Cost: Care delay
Backlogs grow faster than staffing ever could, and care teams wait while someone hunts for the right pages.
At every stage above, a person is still splitting and typing the packet by hand.
Why now
Record volume is rising while the workforce that processes it by hand is shrinking.
A separate 2023 NAHDA survey found 64% of HIM departments report being understaffed. Source: AHIMA, NAHDA health information workforce surveys.
A 2023 NAHDA survey found 64% of HIM departments report being understaffed, and AHIMA reports 52% have unfilled positions, contributing to incomplete or inaccurate patient records in 31% of cases.
Source: AHIMA, NAHDA health information workforce surveys.
HIPAA’s minimum necessary standard requires limiting PHI access to what a specific purpose needs, with role-based access supporting it, exactly what inconsistent manual handling makes harder to prove.
Source: 45 CFR §§ 164.502(b), 164.514(d).
The integration of AI and advanced data analytics into HIM workflows means the field needs more skilled HIM professionals, not fewer, even as the workforce shortage persists.
Source: AHIMA health information workforce survey.
How we help
We’re the content foundation layer between your intake channels and your EHR, so outside records are standardized and indexed before anyone has to touch them.
Capture outside records arriving as fax, eFax, portal uploads, email attachments, scans and file drops, agnostic to source.
Medical Records Scanning →Automatically classify document types and apply consistent indexing rules, splitting mixed packets and merged PDFs into the right records.
Data Refinement Services →Only genuinely uncertain items route to the right reviewer, with a full audit trail, not every record that arrives.
Content Management Solutions →Deliver standardized, indexed content directly into your EHR and existing work queues, ready for clinical use.
Data-Driven Workflow and Automation →| Stage | Manual process | With DataBank |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | Outside records arrive as fax, eFax, portal uploads, email and scans, often as mixed packets | Every channel captured into one managed intake process, mixed packets split automatically |
| Refine | HIM staff manually split packets, assign document types and index to the chart | Document types classified and indexing applied automatically, consistent record to record |
| Manage | Exceptions and rework are discovered only when someone can’t find a record | Only genuinely uncertain items routed to a reviewer, with a full audit trail |
| Activate | Usable content reaches the EHR only after manual processing clears the backlog | Standardized, indexed content delivered directly into the EHR and existing work queues |
By role
An outside records decision crosses HIM, IT, compliance and executive leadership. Each role starts with a different question.
HIM Director / Health Information Management leadership
What you’re weighing
Whether the department can keep pace with record volume without growing headcount, and whether indexing is consistent enough to trust.
How DataBank addresses it
We take packet splitting, typing and indexing off your staff’s desks, so your team reviews only the exceptions that actually need a person.
Request an outside records workflow assessment →IT and EHR integration leads
What you’re weighing
Integration effort, and whether this replaces or connects to the EHR already in production.
How DataBank addresses it
We integrate with your EHR, including Epic and Oracle Health (Cerner), and your existing intake channels; we don’t replace them.
Talk to a healthcare specialist →Compliance and privacy officers
What you’re weighing
Whether PHI moving across teams and systems stays traceable, and whether access stays limited to the minimum necessary.
How DataBank addresses it
Every record carries a full audit trail from intake forward, with role-based access that supports HIPAA’s minimum necessary standard.
Read about security at DataBank →Executive sponsors
What you’re weighing
Whether reducing HIM rework and backlog is worth the investment, given how hard HIM roles are to fill right now.
How DataBank addresses it
A health system processing roughly 9 million documents a year moved from $1.50 to $0.68 a document and projected $7.9M in annual savings with this same approach.
See how it’s worked →Outcomes
Records become usable content on arrival, not after a manual backlog clears.
Outside records become usable EHR content as they arrive, not after a manual backlog clears.
Fewer manual touches per packet and a smaller exception queue, so staff spend time on exceptions, not every record.
Clinicians get outside documentation sooner for review and follow-on care decisions.
Indexing keeps pace with record volume even when hiring doesn’t.
Health system experience
A real DataBank engagement with a Mid-Atlantic health system shows what automated indexing does at scale.
Mid-Atlantic Healthcare System
Processing roughly 9 million documents a year, this health system replaced manual indexing with DataBank’s AI-powered document processing, reaching 98% indexing accuracy, reducing unit cost from $1.50 to $0.68 per document, and projecting $7.9M in annual savings.
DataBank infrastructure
DataBank’s document processing integrates with EHR platforms including Epic and Oracle Health (Cerner), delivering standardized content directly into the systems care teams already use.
Security and compliance
Records stay under documented custody from receipt to the governed EHR-ready file, with access controls, audit trails and retention enforced on the platform.
Chain of custody
Every handoff logged, paper and digital, from receipt to the governed EHR-ready record.
Access controls
Role-based permissions aligned to HIPAA’s minimum necessary standard, so staff see only what their role needs.
Audit trails
Every view, edit and routing step recorded, for both routine review and compliance audits.
Retention
Retention schedules applied on the platform and enforced by rule, matching your institution’s policy.
Hosting
Your platform, your cloud tenant or The DataBank Cloud, agreed with your IT team at scoping.
Frameworks and certifications
Next step
A guided working session to clarify your outside records workflow, define success metrics, and recommend the right next step.
Start with a Custom DemoFAQ
Packet splitting, document typing and indexing happen automatically as records arrive, so staff review only the exceptions a system genuinely can’t resolve, instead of touching every outside record that comes in.
Yes. Outside records are captured agnostic to source and destination, fax/eFax, portals, email and scans in, your EHR and work queues out.
No. Your EHR stays the system of record. We integrate with it, including Epic and Oracle Health (Cerner), rather than replacing it.
Only genuinely uncertain items route to the right reviewer, with a full audit trail, not every record that arrives.
Hosting is agreed during scoping to match your organization’s security requirements. Content can stay on a platform you already run, in your own cloud tenant or in The DataBank Cloud, our managed hosting environment.
Start with this week
Bring your intake channels, your current EHR and where processing actually stalls. We’ll map it in a guided working session and recommend the right next step.
Start with a Custom Demo