Apologies in advance if this is technical but I am a tech guy.
We have a fax to email system which is part of our VOIP phone system. The fax system is called Hylafax but they all work pretty much the same. I can utilize the email without HIPAA concerns since it is local within our clinic. I converted all of our fax machines to outbound only by redirecting the phone numbers to fax-to-email recipients. Each fax-to-email shows up in the mailbox as a pdf attachment which can be saved and imported into DM if necessary. I also provide additional tools like Primo PDF if the user wants to build a custom pdf from multiple sources. Some people still feel the need to print faxes out and there is nothing we can do about that except wait for them to retire, I suppose. I set up each number as a secondary SMTP address which is basically a second internet email address on the mailbox. So Joe Smith would have an email addres of [email protected] and also a fax to email address like [email protected].
The routing-
For the routing, I set up shared Exchange mailboxes for each former physical fax machine. Users can work them electronically from there. I did this so people would grasp the concept. From there I offered to provide personal fax-to-email numbers to anyone who wanted one. That way they can make things more efficient for themselves and only have to check their own email instead of a shared email box as well. Both work flows work great and are not mutually exclusive. I have had many takers on the personal numbers and that seems to be the preferred way but there is still a need for shared fax mailboxes because we have a group of nurses working things for a group of providers so they sort things out with their own methodology.
If people leave the company or maybe take maternity leave or something like that it is easy to move that secondary address to another mailbox. New employees who replace old employees receive the old fax number and email address from the former user so the sender doesn't necessarily need to know that a new person has taken over the job.
I chose Hylafax even though we already had Biscom/Faxcom in place. It would have worked but the amount of faxes receive would require additional hardware resources. Hylafax is part of our phone system and is free, open source software. We save money on some faxes staying electronic if people don't print them. We also save some resources if thigns stay electronic because our medical records department would have to scan it in if it is printed anyway. I have a copy of all of the faxes received if I need them, too.
Outbound is a different story. We use Biscom for that. I would like to increase outbound electronic faxing but there are many challenges and old habits to break. I had support from management to convert all inbound faxes to electronic and it has been fantastic for many reasons. There is less wear and tear on fax machines and some fax machines have been retired.
This is possible with our VOIP system because we use a PRI from our phone company connected to a device called a midspan for outbound faxes. We do not use SIP trunks for fax traffic.
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Posted : July 21, 2016 9:56 am
