Fax is quite often referred to as the “cockroach” of technology in the American healthcare system.
Despite years of efforts to eliminate faxing, it still persists. But is faxing the real problem here? Or is it the perception of faxing via a fax machine? The antiquated version of a fax machine, with two modems hissing at each other and spitting out blurry, curled up, yellow paper is what we need to eliminate. In so doing, we can change the perception of what we call ‘fax’ into the concept of a secure digital document exchange over a trusted network that seamlessly fits into existing workflows.[us_single_image image=”8816″ align=”center”]Let’s be honest about our willingness to adapt to new technology – not just ‘eliminate’ something that seems outdated and antiquated. In 1940, if you wanted to make a phone call, your call was routed through a switchboard operator who would connect you to the person you were trying to call. Would anyone today still consider using this technology? NO! Yet, would anyone suggest that two members of a clinical care team shouldn’t have a phone call about a patient because 80 years ago it was cumbersome and the technology is outdated? NO!
So why do we treat faxing, and the fax machine, so differently?
If you are using a fax machine, connected to a phone line, and you have two modems hissing at each other, you absolutely need to update your technology and adapt to today’s standards. Modern faxing is the most secure, most reliable, and most convenient way to digitally share documents between two endpoints on a connected network. Faxing today is as easy as dragging-and-dropping a file or document into an application and hitting send. There is virtually no difference in the user experience between sending an email, other than the fact that a fax is sent securely, and an email is not.[us_iconbox icon=”” style=”circle” img=”8674″]Modern faxing is the most secure, most reliable, and most convenient way to digitally share documents between two endpoints on a connected network.[/us_iconbox]For businesses to be able to efficiently and effectively function, there needs to be a secure and reliable way to transmit data and documents between two endpoints. Fax is that method – it is simply the most convenient way to accomplish to this task. It just works. So, let’s change the perception of fax and let’s adopt and embrace the technological advances in the same way we have done with other technologies we rely on every day.
Let’s start using fax via 3rd party applications like Microsoft Teams to seamlessly integrate into today’s collaborative workflows. Let’s start using APIs to send and receive faxes at the speed of digital. Let’s start using AI to extract data and turn an unstructured document into machine-readable structured data. Let’s start converting the fax image into a searchable PDF, allowing for interoperable sharing of data and documents.[us_single_image image=”8751″ align=”center”][us_iconbox icon=”” style=”circle” img=”8674″]Let’s start using fax via 3rd party applications like Microsoft Teams to seamlessly integrate into today’s collaborative workflows.[/us_iconbox][us_single_image image=”8815″]We don’t need to eliminate fax just because of the perception of hissing modems, curly paper, missing pages, busy signals, long transmission times, and undelivered documents. In the same sense that we don’t need to eliminate phone calls because of switchboard operators, connection errors, other voices on the line, etc.
We need to modernize and adapt our thinking of faxing to meet today’s needs of secure digital document delivery. We need to eliminate on-premise fax servers and expensive fax boards, and instead move to cloud-based document delivery networks.