UNIVERSAL PATIENT RECORD CONVERSION TOOL

1 . A system, comprising:

a health care provider computer operatively connected over a network to a web server, the web server providing a health care provider portal and an applet;

the applet configured to convert patient records in a first data format to patient records in a second data format associated with the health care provider portal.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the first format is a data format associated with a practice management system.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the first format is an electronic health record format.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein the first format is a personal health record format.

5 . A web server programmed to provide over a network connection, a health care provider portal to a health care provider and an applet to the health care provider wherein the applet is configured to convert patient records from a first data format associated with a health care practice management system of the health care practice to a second data format associated with the health care provided portal.

6 . The web server of claim 5 wherein the health care provider portal being programmed to provide for creating cover sheets with bar codes using patient information stored in the second format.

7 . The web server of claim 6 wherein the health care provider portal being programmed to correlate scanned paper records associated with the cover sheets and the corresponding bar codes with a unique patient identifier.

8 . A method for converting paper records to electronic records, the method comprising:

executing an applet on a computer to access patient records stored in a first data format and convert the patient records to a second data format, wherein both the first format and the second format include a patient name and a unique patient identifier;

generating a bar code containing the unique patient identifier from the second format and printing the bar code on a second sheet;

scanning a plurality of paper pages comprising the cover sheet followed by at least one additional page of paper records associated with the patient identified with the unique patient identifier from the second format;

storing in data storage associated with and accessible by a web server an electronic copy of the at least one additional page of paper records such that the electronic copy is associated with the unique patient identifier.

9 . The method of claim 8 further comprising making the electronic copy available to a health care provider using a health care provider computer operatively connected to the web server.

10 . The method of claim 9 further comprising making the electronic copy available to a patient identified with the unique patient identifier using a computing device operatively connected to the web server.

11 . The method of claim 8 wherein the first data format is associated with a health care practice management system of a health care provider.

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the second data format is associated with a health care provider web site portal.