Eutychus

I work for a medical doctor and would like to know if Sharepoint 2003 is a good tool to help us with our document management and workflow needs. Or, is there a better one? We have Sharepoint 2003 on our server. I have not used Sharepoint but have been reading about what it can do. I do Access programming and could interface the Access databases we have with Sharepoint if that's the right direction for us. I've also done some ASP and HTML web programming. To help the reader understand what we need the system to do, I have explained below. Basically, I would like to know if Sharepoint is the right (or a good) solution for our needs. Can it handle the document management requirements and workflow requirements in the attached document with a very minimal amount of user interaction required. There would be about 8 - 12 users on the Sharaepoint intranet site. I hope there is someone who is quite knowledgeable about Sharepoint 2003 who can help. Thank you very much!

================== Requirements ========================
Document Management System Requirements

Requirements Overview:
The document management system includes two main functions: 1) Indexing and saving of all documents; and 2) Workflow of documents.

Description:
Currently, documents are housed in one of the many subfolders of the folder “Patient Records.” The documents come from various sources: A) faxes scanned into a PDF file and stored in the patient’s folder; B) Phone messages manually created and scanned; C) PDF documents created using one of the six Access databases.

When such files are created and stored, the system needs to be smart enough to 1) know what folder and subfolders they belong to, put them there, and automatically name them; 2) allow adding text/comments to the document along with signing the document after each addition of text/comments (currently Adobe Acrobat is used to sign the PDF file documents); 3) tag the document for review by others (nurses, the Doctor, etc.); 4) provide searching of documents by patient, date, document type.

Below is an example of the sort of thing we want to do:
Office Visit or Patient Check-in Procedure to handle with Sharepoint.
We would like the procedure below to be done electronically (it's manual now) to eliminate as much paperwork as possible. Can Sharepoint do this, creating non-email alerts for the next reviewer and in some way automatically moving the process along to the next step in the procedure?
Patient completes paperwork
If new patient, add patient subfolder in “Patient Records” folder.
Scan completed paperwork and insurance cards
Put scanned docs in patient’s folder under “Patient Records” (electronic copy)
Patient is checked or tests are run using various database programs. A PDF file is created and put in “TempRecords” subfolder . (See Echo, Stress Testing, Ultrasound, etc.)
Doctor reviews electronic version (PDF file) and adds comments
If patient is a referral, doctor gives paperwork to fax to referring physician.
If patient is the doctor's patient, Doctor gives paperwork of test to nurse to call patient with results and add (handwritten) med changes to Office Progress Notes. It is then put in the scan box.
Receptionist gives paper copy of test to Assistant to prompt him to move electronic version to patient’s folder
Assistant returns paper copy to Receptionist to scan
Receptionist puts paper copy in completed box