Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
as~~~.~.~~
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING DOCUMENTS
INTO ELECTRONTC DATA FOR TRANSACTION PROCESSING
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
to
The present invention relates to optical scanning and
optical character recognition systems, and more particularly,
to means for converting documents into electronic data which
can be extracted and manipulated.
Paper-intensive businesses and governmental agencies,
e.g., insurance claim processing companies, credit card
companies and taxing authorities, require large staffs and a
great amount of physical plant. Also, they tend to operate
inefficiently and are prone to make numerous errors. This
leads to large operating expenses and customer dissatisfaction.
A paper-intensive company may receive tens of thousands
of documents a day. This type of company can be of two general
types, i.e. a transaction company or an archive company,. and
how a company handles the paper it receives will depend on the
type of company it is. A transaction company must obtain data
from the documents immediately. Then the data is transferred
to a series of people who must act on it. The ,sequence of
those ransactions is usually, well known. Once the transac-
tions are complete, the data may be stored. While it must be
possible to recover the stored data, only a small portion of it
is ever likel~r to be retrieved. Also, the reasons fog
retrieval are random. A medical claims processing company is
an example of a transaction company.
An archive company stores the information as soon as it
is received and without processing. It may, for example,
microfilm the received documents as a form of storage. A large
percentage of the information stored by the archive type
company will be retrieved, but the reasons for the requests far
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~~1.~.'~~t
2
information will be well-known. A government agency that keeps
birth certificates is an example of an archive company.
Archive companies can store , data slowly without
incurring much customer dissatisfaction, but transaction
companies must complete their transactions quickly. Archive
companies must be able to quickly retrieve all of their
records, but transaction companies only need quick access to a
small proportion of their records. For example, people expect
to be ably to get a copy of a birth certificate decades old in
a few minutes, but would not expect a company to have fast
access to a 1 year old medical claim. There will not be many
requests for information on medical claims that have already
been processed, but there are continuing requests for birth
records.
The tens of thousands of documents received by a
transaction type company may be of various types. These must
be sorted and routed to the proper person for action. Thus, in
a typical mailroom, there must be a large number of people who
are trained to recognize the type of document received and to
direct the document to the correct location. Also, the shear
volume of paper makes it necessary to have a very large
mailroom: This mailroom is usually an unattractive place for
workers, being filled with seemingly endless stacks of papers.
This leads to lowered moral and numerous errors. Such a
physical plant is also costly.
Some of the problems of sorting incoming documents can
be reduced by insisting on the use of standardized forms,
especially those that are color-coded. However, if the
customer mistakenly uses the wrong form, it can;be directed to
the wrong location and can be lost in the system for days or ~.
weeks among millions of other documents.
Once a document is sorted, it is'then necessary to
physically move it from one location to another fox processing.
This again requires numerous personnel and some amount of
space. Also, the deliveries are slow, subject to error and
unsightly. In addition, this may be a very inefficient step.
There may be people in one location capable .of processing~the
Ro~(~~.,~.~~E~
3
document who are not busy, but that location may be so remote
from the sorted document's, e.g., in another town, that it is
impractical to transmit the physical documents to that loca-
tion: The people at the location where the document is located
may be so busy that they cannot process it for days. To combat
this it is often necessary to have excess staff at all
locations, which is costly.
After a document reaches a person who must act on it
substantively, the problems are not over. Critical information
must be accurately retrieved from the document and evaluated.
Typically, the information is loaded into a large computer
which keeps track of the information and.any action taken in
response to it. There is considerable chance for error during
the information retrieval and computer storage step, especially
if the document is filled out by hand and the person processing
the document is fatigued by the large volume. Further, in a
health insurance or credit card business or in a taxing
authority, there are usually complex rules on how to respond to
or treat the information in a file, In some cases these rules
must be looked up manually, a further source of error and
delay. Even when the rules are stored on computer, it is
necessary for the operator to properly code the information so
that the computer applies the proper rules. For example, the
rate of insurance reimbursement may vary for the same medical
treatment, depending on the subscriber's health insurance plan.
Here the chance for error also exists.
Assuming that a document is properly acted upon and the
correct information is delivered to the customer, e.g., a tax
payer, that person may have questions. Thus, customer service
representatives will at least need access to the computer-
stored information on the original document in order to respond
to the questions. However, it is not unusual for the customer
service representatives to need to see a copy of the original
document and any correspondence with the client, not just the
computer data. This means that sameone will have to locate
the physical file created in response to the original document.
When large numbers of documents are processed, it is
i~~~~,~..~~
4
impossible to keep many of the files convenient to a service
representative. Thus, the files are usually stored. off-site,
e.g., on microfilm, and it may take days or weeks to retrieve
the file and respond to customer inquiries.
As indicated, at various stages of the document
handling process described, computers can help to xeduce the
errors. For example, it is known that typed and computer-
printed documents can be optically scanned to recover an image
of the document for storage in digital form or otherwise. Such
storage can be on tape or optical disk. Also, optical
character recognition units can extract data electronically
from an image of a typed or computer printed document.
Electronic representations of data and documents can be
transmitted from one location to another for subsequent
processing. However, these devices are used only after a good
deal of time has been spent manually processing the documents
so that they are acceptable fox handling by electronic equip-
ment. In addition, an image of a single document can require
up to 50,000 bytes of information. Thus, with a 2400 baud
modem, it would take at least 20 seconds to transmit the image.
If 100,000 documents are received in a day, it would take 2
million seconds to transmit them, but there are only 86,400
seconds in a day.
While various electronic components are available for
easing the workload in paper-intensive businesses, there is
presently no system known to the applicant which handles a high
volume of documents, essentially eliminates the need for the
physical document soon after it is received, reduces errors,
reduces fatiguing labor, and allows transactions to be carried
out at remote locations so the work load can be efficiently
distributed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The pxesent invention is directed to a method and
apparatus for handling a high volume of documents, essentially
electronically, by immediately optically scanning and capturing
CA 02001106 1999-O1-OS
the image of the document upon receipt, and carrying out
all subsequent operations on t=he basis of the image of the
scanned document.
According to one aspect of the present invention,
there is provided a system for electronically engaging in a
transaction prompted by a document, comprising:
- scanning means for optically scanning the
document to provide electronic: image signals indicative of
the image of the document, at least said image signals
constituting a record;
- main local area network means onto which said
record is transmitted;
- at least two servers connected to said main
network means for receiving the records, each server
communicating its status with the other and being
programmed with a routing program such that one of the
servers elects to accept a record for processing based in
part on the status of each server;
- secondary local area network means onto which
at least one of said servers places said record, said
secondary network means being capable of operating at a
lower speed than said main network; and
- at least one workstation connected to said
secondary local area network means, said workstation
modifying said record according to predetermined
transactions, and returning said modified record to the
server connected to said secondary local area network.
According to another aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a system for electronically
engaging in a transaction prompted by a document,
comprising:
CA 02001106 1999-O1-OS
.'~ a
- at least one electronic scanner means for
optically scanning the document. to provide electronic image
signals indicative of the image of the document, at least
the image signals constituting a record;
- a main local area :network means onto which said
record is transmitted;
- at least two department servers connected to
said main network means for receiving the records, said
scanner means operating according to a first route program
so as to direct the records over the main network means to
the appropriate department server according to
predetermined criteria;
- a department local area network means for each
department server, each depari~ment server placing records
onto its department network means;
- at least two workstations connected to each
department network means, said department servers operating
according to a second route program so as to direct the
records over its department network means to the
appropriate workstation according to predetermined
criteria, said work staticn modifying said records
according to predetermined transactions, and returning said
modified records to said server.
According to another aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a method of electronically
transaction processing a document comprising the steps of:
- scanning the document to create an electronic
image of the document which is part of a record;
- transmitting the record over a main local area
network to one of a plurality of department servers,
according to a routing routine resident in said servers;
CA 02001106 1999-O1-OS
5b
- exchanging information between said servers
over said main local area network about the status of said
servers;
- determining, according to the routine, which
server will elect to process a record based cn the status
of the servers;
- distributing the record from the department
server electing to process the record to one of the
plurality of workstations according to the routing routine;
- electronically creating a form at the
workstation as part of the record;
- displaying the rE:cord in window type screen
segments for data input;
- processing the document by manipulating the
data in the record; and
- returning the data to the department server for
storage and action based on the processing.
Preferably, the system comprises the following
further means:
- storage means for storing the electronic image
signals;
- selecting means for selecting portions of the
image of the document where information is expected to
exist;
- means for creating form signals indicative of
an electronic form having locations for various information
and storing the form signals in said storage means;
- extraction means for copying information in the
selected portions of the image as information signals and
placing the information in ~>reselected locations of the
CA 02001106 1999-O1-OS
5c
electronic form by storing the information signals in said
storage means;
- these further means for modifying an electronic
data image of documents bearing information and extracting
the information from the image.
Therefore, according to the different aspects of
the present invention and/or its preferred embodiments a
document is scanned by an optical scanner immediately upon
receipt to form an electronic image of the document. If the
lU document has relevant informat=ion typed or printed on it,
the image is directed to an optical character reader
("OCR") where the information is extracted. The OCR can
also retrieve information in the form of bar codes. The
electronic image and extracted information are then placed
together as a "record" on a company local area network
("LAN"). One or more computers acting as department servers
are also connected to the company LAN. Based on a routing
program, the image and information, i.e., the record, are
captured by one of the servers and placed on a department
20 LAN associated with that server.
Along the department LANs there are arranged
computer workstations for the people who must process the
image of the document, and any information from the OCR, in
order to complete a transaction with a customer. Each
workstation may perform the same function or the
transaction may be divided into a series of steps with
certain workstations performing one or more of the steps
before the image and information are passed on to another
workstation for further processing.
30 At the completion of the transaction, the images
and the information as modified by the transaction, are
CA 02001106 1999-O1-OS
5d
sent back to the company LAN through the department server.
This completed record is directed by the department ser~rer
to archive storage, e.g., an ~~ptical disk which is
connected to the company LAN. :~ mainframe computer may also
be connected to the company LAN such that a summary of the
record of the transaction in the form of a sequential audit
trial of all of the transactions will be available for use
in responding to customer inquiries. This mainframe
computer, or a separate master index device connected to
the company LAN, will keep track of the location of the
record during the transaction and after storage so that the
complete record, including the
o~O~~~,~.~~
6
document image, may be retrieved.
In a preferred embodiment, the workstations are
designed as programmed computers with high resolution monitor
screens. These workstations operate with "windows" or separate
screen segments in which different images can be displayed.
A program allows the creation of a form for information
from the image of the document. With this program the form is '
displayed in one window and the document in another. Segments
of the document are related to corresponding areas of the form
by the program.
During a data entry step ~of the transaction, the areas
of the form where information is needed are sequentially
highlighted along with the areas of the document where that
information is found. Further, magnified images of both areas
are positioned in additional windows, located adjacent each
other. As .a result, information entered in the form automati-
cally by the OCR can be easily checked. Where the information
is handwritten, it can be typed in at the workstation with a
minimum of errors.
The workstation may also be advantageously programmed
with edit routines which will not allow information to be
entered which does not fit the normal parameters. For example,
in the year 1988 the program would reject a birth data of 1992
since that date has not yet occurred. This also reduces errors
during manual data entry.
The department servers and the scanners can be
programmed to route the data and images from the scanner to the
proper department based on the type of document, the backlog in
the various departments, the resources or capabilities of the
department, or operator intervention. In some instances the
information can be sent ~to remote locations for processing.
These remote locations can be offices in other 'towns, but they
can also be workstations in the homes of some employees. Thus,
handicapped employees or those with young children can work
from their homes.
The records stored can be of any type. However, the
present invention is particularly useful where an image of the
7
original document is helpful, e.g., medical records of x-rays,
CAT scans, EKGs, etc. If a central repository of such medical
records is maintained, scanners can be located remotely from
the company LAN, e.g., at individual hospitals. This data
could then be sent to the company LAN by telephone lines or
satellite links. While the speed of these means of communica
tion is too slow to distribute tens of thousands of images to
transaction workstations, they are fast enough to act as inputs
to the high speed distribution network represented by the
company LAN.
With medical records in a central repository, they may
be called for by any participating hospital. Thus if someone
is suddenly taken ill and is taken to a hospital that does not
have his medical records, these can be transmitted to the
hospital where he is. These records are not merely data on his
medical condition, but actual images of those records.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other features of the present
invention will be more readily apparent from the following
detailed description and drawings of an illustrative embodiment
of the invention in which:
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a system for transaction
processing high volumes of documents;
Fig. 2 is, a flow chart of the operation of the system
shown in Fig. 1 for information input and processing;
Fi.g. 3 is a flow chart of the operation of the system
shown in Fig. l for handling customer service inquiries;
Fig: 4 is a flow chart of a typical operation of a
department workstation shown in Fig. l; and
Figs. 5-8 are views of the screens of the workstation
of Fig. 4 during different phases of operation.
DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT
In Fig. l there is shown a general layout for a system
according to the present invention, in which large volumes of
documents may be subjected to transaction processing. This
system is controlled by preprogrammed computers and Fig. 2
represents a flow chart of system operation according to these
programs. These programs may be in many forms and languages
and one skilled in the art, using Fig. 2, can form such
programs.
The documents, which may number 100,000 or more per
day, are received in a mailroom 10. In this mailroom there are
one or more scanners 12, 12' into which the documents are fed.
These scanners convert the images of the documents into digital
signals. This is represented by step 101 in Fig. 2.
An image may require 500,000 bytes to represent a
single document. However, there can be a savings in system
capacity achieved by compressing the data representing each
document. For example, the compression can be according to the
' CCITT Group 3 or Group 4 compression technique used in
facsimile machines. In such a compression scheme, run length
encoding is used. For example, if there is a line of white
data, for example the space between lines of information, it is
encoded merely as a signal that indicates a white level
followed by another signal which states how long the strip of
white level is: After compression, an image may typically
require only 50,000 bytes.
Document scanners are well known in the art and a
scanner useful in the present invention is, for example, the
DocuScan DS 4000 series, manufactured by Terminal Data
Corporation of Simi Valley, California. Such a processor is
capable of scanning approximately 4,000 documents per hour.
Thus in an eight-hour day, 32,000 documents can be processed
through one machine, and at least four machines would have to
operate in parallel in order to comfortably handle 100,000
documents per day. Naturally, it would be cost effective to
utilize fewer machines on close to a 24-hour per day basis. .
The scanner may be configured so as to define each
image as a two dimensional bit map array. Through interface
control, one or more "windows" from the array may be selected
~~~1.~.~~i
9
for transmission. Further, this scanner is computer controlled
and may be preprogrammed to operate within the system.
An OCR 13 is provided with respect to one of the
scanners 12. In operation, scanner 12 may be used only for ;
typewritten documents, while scanner 12' is used only for
handwritten documents. Alternatively the scanner s.nd computer
14 may be programmed to search relevant portions for "windows"
in the image to determine if there is typed or printed
information in relevant segments of the document. If there is,
it is sent to the OCR 13 for processing and the retrieved data
is bundled with the image to form a record. This operation is
represented by steps 103, 105 in Fig. 2.
After a document is scanned, its image may be applied
through a computer having 3 MIPS capability, for example an IBM
PS/2-70, to a local area network (LAN) 20. Preferably, this
network is company wide or agency-wide, so the document image
can be sent to any department where it is needed or it can be
most efficiently processed.
LAN 20 is preferably a token ring network operating at,
for example, 16 megabits/second, and utilizing IBM's Advanced
Program-to-Program-Communications protocol known as "APPC'°.
Such a network allows for extremely high speed data transmis
sion. In particular it will allow for the transmission of a
50,000 byte compressed record of a document image in a fortieth
of a second. Thus it allows the high density input from
mailroom l0 to be spread through various departments within the
company for distributed processing of the information contained
in the document based on anticipatory scheduling. In par-
ticular, using company LAN 20, the input from scanners 12 may
be distributed to departments 30, 40 and 50, as indicated by
step 107 of Fig. 2. While only three such departments are
shown, additional ones may also be provided.
Departments 40 and 50 are shown in schematic form while
department 30 has been shown in more detail to illustrates the
details which in fact are duplicated in the other departments.
Because of the computers 14 shown in the mailroom,
information can be directed from the scanners to particular
~Q~~~.~.~~a
departments depending on the type of information in the
documents received. In addition, computers 32, 42, 52 acting
as the server for each department may be programmed to
distribute data directed to that department over department
5 LANs, e.g. LAN 39, for use by workstations 34, 35 and 36 of the
department. LAN 39 is preferably a token ring network
operating at, for example, 4 megabits/second, which allows for
the transmission of a document image in a tenth of a second.
LAN 39 also transmits the results of transactions performed at
10 those workstations to server 32 and back onto LAN 20 for
distribution to other departments, to an archive arrangement 60
or a mainframe computer 70. In general, the programs in
computers 14 and 32, which dictate the information flow,
generally operate under a so-called "route" program. As an
alternative' to locating the route program in these two
computers, a server for the company LAN 20 may be provided in
which this 'information is contained. However, this is a less
efficient arrangement.
Basically the route program decides where the image of
the document, images of related documents and data extracted by
an optical character reader (OCR), which together form the
"record", are to be transmitted and when. this routing
program considers the document type, overall workload in the
company, the capabilities of the department, and special
instructions. The special instructions may be created by
operator intervention so that privileged customer documents are
given priority treatment:
When the data from the scanners 12, 12' reaches the
department that they are directed to on the LAN 20, for example y
department 30, the data is seized by the LAN server 32. If the
image contains typed or printed data, server 32 can direct the
image to optical character reader 33 where the typed data is
converted into digital information and bundled with the image
part of the record. While data is being transmitted from
sexver 32 to the workstations on the LAN or while it is being
scanned by OCR 33, it may be stored in storage device 37, i.e.
step 109 of Fig. 2. Storage device 37 may be a one gigabyte
11
magnetic disk device, which can store up to 20,000 images.
Instead of utilizing optical character recognition at
the department level through OCR 33,. as noted above, it is also
possib:Le to perform aptical character recogrjition in the
mailroom on OCR 13.
Because the present invention relates to transaction
processing, it is known in advance the route which the image
and related data forming a record must follow. Thus, route
programming is relatively straightforward. In this case, data
for a particular department, for example medicare payments, is
directed from the proper scanner to the department which
handles that type of claim. In this example it is department
30. When the image and any related data reach server 32, it
directs the data to a workstation over the department T,AN 39.
In addition, a master index 80 is updated with the present
location of the record as indicated instep 111 of Fig. 2.
Each of the workstations 34, 35, 36 connected to
department LA.N 39 may have the same physical construction, for
example, a preprogrammed IBM PS/2 Model 50 computer with a high
resolution monitor. The computer must be capable of decom-
pressing the compressed image data for presentation on the
monitor and thus should have a good MIPS.. Also, the monitor
preferably is a 19 inch 1664 x 1200 pixel display.
Even though the workstations may be physically the
same, the task of these workstations may be broken up according
to a processing route which is preestablished. By way of
example, the three workstations 34 may be data input stations.
These stations have operators which view the image of the
document and enter data into a predetermined form, for example,
through the use of a keyboard (step 113 of Fig. 2). Because
this may be a relatively time consuming process compared to
analyzing the claim, a department may have more workstations 34
than other types of workstations.
Workstations 35 may be claim analysis workstations.
Once all of the information has been entered into a form by an
operator at a workstation 34, the record, including the image
and the input data, may be transferred to the server 32 which
'~~~.'~.~..~~~fi
12
checks to see if the process is complete (step 115 of Fig. ?.).
Since no claim determ3.nation has been made, server 32 sends the
record to a workstation 35 where the claim is analyzed and
proper payment is determined. If there is some question which
arises in the analysis, an operator at one of workstations 35
can pass the record on to workstation 36 which is a supervisor
workstation. A supervisor would have to work on only a
relatively few of the forms input at workstation 34 and
analyzed at workstation 35.
Server 32 controls the transmission of records between
stations 34, 35 and 36 by a route program, as indicated by step
111 of Fig. 2. This may be done most efficiently by keeping
track of the number of forms being processed at each worksta-
tion and assigning records to the workstation having the least
amount of work at the time. Also, server 32 updates the Master
Index 80 with information on the present location of the
record.
The forms which are created to work with the image of
the document may be established by a "form building program°'.
Such programs are well known in the art and are commercially
available, for example, the program Per: FORM of the Delrina
Technology Corporation of Toronto, Canada, can be used.
Such a program may be arranged to associate various
lines of information on the document with entry lines in the
form. According to the present invention, forms are developed
in conjunction with the type of image observed. This form
building process may take place either at computer 14 on the
company LAN, the departmental server 32 or at the workstation
itself. In constructing the form, "edits" are put in. These
are parameters for the data that can be established fox any
line of the form. This is a means of detecting erroneous
entries.
In making a claim determination, an operator at
workstation 35 may need to have access to a set of rules which
are contained within the mainframe 70. Thus, requests for
data from the mainframe can be applied to LAN 39, transmitted
through server 32 to company LAN 20 and then to the mainframe
13
or, alternatively, directly to the mainframe via a gateway
attached to LAN 39. The results may retrace that path back to
the workstation 35. Further, the mainframe computer 70 may
have more than one campany LAN connected to it via high speed
telecommunications links, such that data scanned in mailroom 10
can be transmitted through LAN 20 to the mainframe, and from
the main frame through telecommunications links -to other LANs
(not shown) at remote locations for processing. This will
typically be done when all of the departments connected to LAN
20 have more work than they can handle.
As soon as a transaction has been completed, either at
workstation 35 or after supervisory review at workstation 36,
the record is transmitted to the server 32. If the server 32
is busy at the time, it will store the record in its storage
location 37. When time is available the record is transmitted
to an archive 60 (Step 117 in Fig. 2). In addition, a summary
of the transaction is transmitted to mainframe computer 70.
The summary of the transaction stored in mainframe 70 allows
customer service representatives to determine on a rapid basis
the disposition of any document file.
The master index 80 keeps track of the location of any
record and it is updated by the department servers. It is
also updated by the computers 62 located in the archive, such
that it will know where the full record, including the image of
the document, is stored in the archive.
Archive 60 is composed of one or more computers, for
example IBM PS/2 Model 70, which are hooked to optical disk
storage devices, commonly known as "jukeboxes". Each of these
devices may include more than l00 optical disks which can be
accessed by a movable head mechanism, much in the manner that
an old~fashioned jukebox player accesses records. An optical
disk has a capability of storing 2.6 gigabits of information.
Thus, one jukebox 64 can hold up to 288 gigabits of data, i.e.,
the images of 5 million documents.
With the present system image data from a record is
typically sent over the company LAN only twice. Once on its
way to a department for processing and once on its way to the
CA 02001106 1999-O1-OS
14
archive.
If summary information is needed from the mainframe 70
or image information is needed from archive 60 by a customer
service representative, for example workstation 44 in depart-
s ment 40, the system operates according to the flow chart of
Fig. 3. The representative may request the information from
the archive 60 or the mainframe based on whether a record is
needed or merely a summary. This request and decision are
indicated at steps 201, 203 in Fig. 3. If a record is needed,
typically, this is done by an inquiry to the department server
42 which asks the master index 80 for the locatidn of the
record. (Step 205). Once this location is determined, the
jukebox computer 62 is instructed to fetch the proper disk and
then to deliver the image and other data from the transaction
to the department server 42 (Step 207). Server 42 in turn
sends the record to the workstation 44 of the service represen-
tative (Step 209).
If the service representative can handle the inquiry
from the customer without a document image, i.e. the record, a
request is made of the department server to contact the main
frame and obtain the transaction summary as indicated in step
211 of Fig. 3. When the summary is received over LAN 20 from
main frame 70, it is delivered by the department server 42 to
the customer service workstation 44 as indicated by step 213.
As previously noted, the workstations 34, 35 and 36 can
be of the same general construction. They further perpetuate
the "windows" scheme which is utilized in scanners 12, 12'.
Figure 5 illustrates a typical window screen display at a
workstation. The top window 400 has a number of icons which
provide a menu of operations that can be performed. The bottom
window is a visual directory or display of a record. The top
window shows that the operator of the workstation has an "in"-
box 401 for bringing files to him, a "hold"-box 403 for putting
files aside for further processing and an "out"-box 405 for
returning files or records to the department LAN 39. A file
cabinet icon is provided to start the procedure for retrieving
records from archive 60. Also, for convenience a calculator
15
409 can be selected for doing routine calculation, for example
totalling the cost for procedures on a medical claim. The
terminal ican 411 selects an emulator routine for access to
the main frame computer 70. A horizontal line 113 indicates
that the output box has been selected. Below the line there is
an indication 415 of the files which are in the out-box, or the
other boxes, as selected.
Fig. 5 in the bottom window 410 shows that in the out
box the "Burns" file 115 contains a form 417 which was
previously generated by a forms generating program, a note pad
419 for indicating treatment of the file, the, image of the
document 421 which represents, for example, a medical claim and
a supporting document 423.
A flow chart for operation of the workstation is shown
in Fig. 4. At step 301 the operator requests a document from
the department server, e.g., server 32. This is done by
selecting icon 401 ~-n Fig. 5. The screen will respond by
displaying the visual directory 410 of the record sent to the
station by the server.
The next step will be to display the form as indicated
at step 303 of Fig. 4. This requires the workstation to
decompress the image for display. If the document image 421 is
selected, it is displayed as shown in Fig. 6, wherein the image
of the original document is on the right hand side in a window
510 and the form 417 with data to be filled in, is on the left
hand side in a window 520 located above the image of the visual
directory in window 410.
The workstation is programmed such that a portion 501
of the image of the original document is highlighted along with
an area 503 of the form where the information is to be
inserted. Tn addition, a new window 500 is created which has a
magnified version of the form at the top and a magnified
version of the document at the bottom. If the document had
been typed, the OCR would have automatically filled in the
information on the form and it can be merely checked. As an
alternative, when data is filled in by an OCR in the prepared
form, only those areas of the form where problems are found in
ew~~~.~.~~,1
16
the corresponding area of the image of the document may be
sequentially highlighted. However, in the illustrated version
in Fig. 6, the document was filled out by hand.
Because of the unique arrangement of the magnified
fields in window 500, it is an easy matter far an operator to
type in the correct data, for example, the social security
number. This is represented by step 305 of Fig. 4.
The workstation is progran~ned such that sections of the
image of the original document and the corresponding form
portions are sequentially highlighted and magnified such that
data entry into the form can be accomplished in an easy and
efficient manner. If desired during the course of data input,
a supporting document can also be displayed in place of the
original. This can be seen by comparing Fig. 6 with Fig. 7 in
which a supporting document has been substituted for the main
document in window 510. This may be helpful, for example, if
the original document is hard to read and the supporting
document contains related information, for example the
patient's name. Also, if desired, the visual directory,
magnified window and form can be replaced by the supporting
document so that the basic claim form and supporting documents
are displayed side-by-side. In addition, any portion of the
supporting document or the original document can be magnified
to aid in data input.. To accomplish this the visual directory ''
410 is used to select the supporting documents to be viewed or
magnified. These procedures are represented by steps 307, 309
and 311 of Fig. 4.
After the data input phase, the document may be
processed at the same workstation, or transferred to a second
workstation for processing. If the workstation is being used
only for data entry, the processing is complete at the station
and the record is put in the out-box, i.e., steps 313 and 315
are performed. However each workstation can be programmed to
perform the entire transaction so the system has maximum
flexibility in distributing the work.
If the transaction is to be completed at the data input
workstation or a document with data already entered is received
oe~~:~,~,~~
17
at a processing workstation, it may be necessary to use the
calculator. If so, the form window 520 can be replaced by the
menu window 400 and the calculator selected. After the
calculation is performed the result can be saved and entered on
the form. This process comprises steps 317, 319 and 321 of
Fig. 4.
In handling a document it may be necessary to apply a
set of complicated rules or to review a list of authorized
procedures. Frequently this information is contained in the
mainframe computer. To access the mainframe the menu window
is displayed and the terminal or 3720 emulation icon is
selected. This causes 'the departmental server to send the
request for information over the company LAN 20 to the
mainframe, to receive the response and to transmit it back to
the requesting workstation over the department LAN 39. Steps
323, 325, 327 represent this process.
If in the course of this transaction processing it is
necessary to select information from archive 60, this can be
done by selecting the file cabinet icon. when the file
cabinet icon is selected it gives access through LAN 39,
server 32 and hAN 20 into the archive 60. TYxe retrieved record
is returned over the same path. This is the procedure of steps
329, 331 and 333 of Fig. 4.
After each operation, the system checks to sae if the
operator has indicated that processing is complete. If he has,
he may send the record to the out-box. However, if it cannot
be completed by looking at backup documents, or retrieving
information from elsewhere in the system, the operator can put
the record in "hold", while information outside the system is
sought, as shown by steps 335 and 337.
When a document is sent to an out-box it may be tagged
for delivery to the archive or another workstation for
processing. For example if a claim is questionable, it may be
sent to a supervisor workstation for review.
In addition to the procedures already described, the
visual directory at a workstation can be increased in size so
as to display the contents of more than one file record. Also,
i~;~~.'~,~"~~7r
18
not only can a portian of a selected document image be
magnified, but the whole document itself can be magnified.
Sometimes information can be obtained Pram the server
32 and Fig. 8 shows the screen display far a search. This
shows that a special window 600 is created for searches. If,
for example, the company is a medical insurance company, the
search can be by claim number, subscriber name or subscriber
number. Further the search can be only in the department or
throughout the system.
The creation of the windows on the workstations can be
according to the Microsoft "Windows" program, which is commer-
cially available from Microsoft Corporation. The 3270
emulation, which allows. access to the main frame, can be
achieved with the "Dynacomm 3270" program, which is available
from FutureSoft Corporation of Galveston, Texas.
The architecture of the present invention allows for
ease of expansion, e.g., by the addition of departments to the
company LAN or workstations to the department LAN. Also with
the present invention, not only is there distributed processing
of the documents based on anticipatory scheduling, but there is
distributed programming. In particular, portions of the
overall system program are contained in the scanning computer
14, each departmental server 32 and the workstation computers
themselves. The flow charts of Figs. 2-4 show the operations
of these programs. While these programs could all be resident
in a single company LAN server, it is much more efficient and
economical to have it separated into the computers at the
locations where the program information is needed.
Because the arrangement according to the present
invention allows for distributed processing, the actual
processing can take place at almost any location. For example
handicapped people or people with young children can work on w
claims processing at their homes with the information being
transmitted to them via telephone modems. While it would be
unduly time consuming to try tn transmit 100,000 documents by
telephone modem, it is perfectly acceptable to transmit a small
number of documents to a workstation at home during the night
i~~~1,~.,~~:e
19
time hours, so that that person can perform the transactions
and return them to the company LAN. Access from the home
terminal may be by way of a separate department LAN or may
merely be an input to one of the existing department LANs.
The present invention provides a particularly useful
means of transmitting visual type hospital records, for
example, x-rays, EKG's, CAT scans, etc., to remote locations.
In particular, the company could be a medical records process-
ing center set up according to the present invention. At this
center, images of medical records from subscriber hospitals or
other medical providers can be stored in an archive.
If a person suddenly takes ill or is injured, that
person is typically transported to the nearest hospital. The
ambulance team could radio ahead to this hospital.to tell them
'the name, and perhaps social security number, of the person
being transported. If the haspital did not have the person's
medical records, the hospital could send a request, for
example, by satellite link or telephone line, to the medical
records processing center. At the center the record could be
located in the archive and the visual image could be trans-
mitted via satellite to the hospital so it would be waiting for
the patient's arrival. In addition to hospital records,
medical claims could be directed electronically from scanners
at a hospital to a medical claim office, thus distributing the y
claim input procedure from mailroom 10 and workstations 3~ to
remote hospital locations.
While the invention has been particularly shown and
described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it
will be understood by those skilled in the art that various
changes in form and detail may be made therein without the
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
