Most small and growing organizations have policies and procedures documentation that need to be regularly updated, and made available easily and quickly to staff. Some organizations are also subject to strict audit and accreditation processes where they must show that the organization has complied with OSHA, ISO, HIPAA, or other government regulation. In some cases, these may be critical to safety and service.
Procedure, policies and technical manuals all involve the production and control of documentation. There are many types of documents with varying purposes, natures, and life cycles in both paper and electronic format. There is every reason to use state-of-the-art technology to share and convey this information efficiently. The most effective way of sharing and controlling this information is with the use of a modern electronic document management system.
An electronic document management system should allow a user to easily add and index documents for quick retrieval. The system should include the ability to share and collaborate on documents. Collaboration should route through a workflow system, automatically moving documents to appropriate staff for editing and review until final acceptance with a unique sign-off by a manager. Once accepted by management, documents should be made available to the organization-at-large as read-only documents. In addition the system must comply with HIPAA confidentiality and other government regulation. To comply, a system must have a user name and password, biometric, or other security access system along with a complete audit trail on each document that tracks every action taken on a document along with the time and date the event occurs and the user name performing the action.
DocuXplorer Document Management System is a good example of document management software that is easy-to-use and allows a user to store, share, and workflow documents securely with a full audit trail to fully comply with government regulation.
Setting up a Procedures Library in DocuXplorer starts with a set of index fields that identify each document. DocuXplorer already provides a quick-start Index Set that can be modified as required for to fit an organizations specific needs. Workflows are created based on Saved Searches of index fields that designate who a document is assigned to and the status of the document. By simply changing the "Assigned To" and status of a document, it can be routed to the correct person in the workflow process. Security is a strong component of this software along with its excellent audit trail.
A Policies and Procedures Library in a modern electronic document management system makes sense for every size organization. Smaller organizations will discover a significant increase in productivity and ease of compliance now that systems like these are affordable for any size organization.