Lignite company
MIBRAG Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlegesellschaft mbH.
Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlengesellschaft mbH (MIBRAG) is a modern mining company based in Zeitz (Burgenlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt). The extraction and sale of raw lignite is part of the company’s core business. All told, MIBRAG’s opencast mines at Profen (Saxony-Anhalt) and United Schleenhain (Saxony) generate over ten per cent of the raw lignite extracted in Germany.
The power generated annually from MIBRAG coal supplies millions of households, the region’s chemical industry and Deutsche Bahn.
In addition to the two opencast mines, MIBRAG also runs a refinery and two of its own industrial power plants. They provide energy for opencast mining and district heating as well as process steam in the region.
The project
MIBRAG planned to have its employees’ occupational health records digitised. This is because the client is legally required to store these patient files for 40 years following the last examination if there is a possibility of later developing an occupational illness or the work involves the professional handling of carcinogenic substances.
Because the archive room at MIBRAG’s Occupational Medical Centre has already reached its limits, the client opted to have some 2,500 patient files digitised and subsequently destroyed.
Another crucial factor underlying the decision was that the digital files were also protected against fire and water damage. During the project’s tender phase, REISSWOLF impressed the client with its services, ultimately winning the contract.
Visiting the digitisation site in Hartmannsdorf before starting the project allowed the client to get an idea of the skills and expertise of REISSWOLF.
Around 2,500 hanging files for individual patients going back to 1994 needed to be digitised. The files each contained up to 50 double-sided DIN A4 pages, some of them in colour.
The client instructed REISSWOLF to digi- tise each individual file as a read-only PDF with a scan quality of at least 300 dpi. A REISSWOLF driver picked up the files to be digitised with a secure, GPS-monitored shredder vehicle. A unique feature of this project involved digitising ECG recordings on thermal paper. To do this, REISSWOLF worked with the client to carry out a test run in advance involving testing out some old ECGs with various resolutions and settings until the scan was better than the original.
Before scanning, a patch sheet with a barcode was inserted into each ECG file, which transmitted the optimal settings for the ECG to the scanner to perfectly reproduce the fine lines of the reading.
The ECGs were then inserted back into the digital file in the correct place. The files were stored by year on Blu-ray to ensure the data storage media can be destroyed annually.
The digital files were delivered to the client on two USB sticks. The project also included the subsequent storage of patient files. The final destruction of data and documents took place after the approval of MIBRAG.
Client benefits
The legal obligation to retain patient files for 40 years no longer represents a challenge for the customer in terms of the amount of space it takes up. MIBRAG can now use space freed up after digitising the files for other purposes or save the cost altogether.
And fire and water protection is also no longer an issue.
Client feedback
Overall, REISSWOLF has received consistently positive feedback from the client regarding the implementation of the project.
The client was particularly impressed by the data protection expertise of REISSWOLF, which takes top priority when processing highly sensitive and confidential patient data. The client also had high praise for the quality of the scanned thermal paper documents, some of which were easier to read than the originals. A follow-up order for another 900 patient files is already firmly planned for 2023.