Teleform scannable data entry: an efficient method to update a community-based medical record? Community care coordination network Database Group.

Community-based multi-disciplinary care of chronically ill individuals frequently requires the efforts of several agencies and organizations. The Community Care Coordination Network (CCCN) is an effort to establish a community-based clinical database and electronic communication system to facilitate the exchange of pertinent patient data among primary care, community-based and hospital-based providers. In developing a primary care based electronic record, a method is needed to update records from the field or remote sites and agencies and yet maintain data quality. Scannable data entry with fixed fields, optical character recognition and verification was compared to traditional keyboard data entry to determine the relative efficiency of each method in updating the CCCN database.