IDEAS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR FAXING BENEFITS

HIM Managers are always interested in automatic faxing of transcribed documents when researching transcription systems.  Instead of the manual method of finding a report in the patient’s chart, going to a fax machine, dialing, and waiting while a report is faxed, TAź offers automatic electronic faxing in several different formats.  With TAź and a fax product, the complete faxing process can take place from the desktop.   Below is a summary of the three different types of faxing scenarios offered with Transcript Advantage’s Distribution software.  Following are ideas from TAź users suggesting how to maximize your investment in automatic faxing technology.

1.        Batch Faxing is commonly used by Medical Records, Radiology, Emergency, and ancillary departments to deliver hard copies of patient reports to physicians and physicians groups.  Copies arrive at the same time of the day or night, when the batch is set to begin automatically at a preset time. With TAź batch faxing, fewer reports will print in Medical Records requiring manual distribution.  In addition to the paper savings for the hospital, there will be clerical savings with fewer hard copies to distribute.  Physicians like knowing their copies will be available in their office at a specific time.  With TAź batch faxing, a physicians group will only receive one copy of a patient report if multiple physicians from within the group are involved, as in attending, referring, and consulting. 

2.        Demand Faxing is the TAź method to send a fax in response to a particular request.  This is the ideal method to supply needed reports, such as discharge summaries, to insurance carriers and those other common telephone calls for copies.  From your networked PC or terminal, the needed report can be found in TAź View Transcripts and faxed from the view screen by simply pressing a function key.  There is no need to print a hard copy or find the chart.  TAź viewable fax logs provide assurance that the fax was initiated immediately.  The clerk keys the receiving fax number into a pop-up window or selects a physician from an on-line list and sends the report without ever leaving her/his desk. 

3.        Immediate Faxing is used with physicians and off-site clinics who wish to receive their reports or copies as soon as transcriptions are completed.  A physician will then receive faxes immediately, all day long instead of receiving batched copies at a specific time.  TAź customers have found this option to be most useful for off-site clinics who maintain patient records within their facility.  Cardiology departments usually need their copies right away and prefer immediate faxing.

Botsford General Hospital in Farmington Hills, MI takes advantage of TAź’s batch faxing potential.  They have over 302 staff physicians that receive faxes on a routine basis via a batch fax.  Additionally 290 non-staff physicians are now set up to receive faxes automatically.  In the fall of 1996 when batch faxing began at Botsford in the Medical Records department, staff physicians were first sent a form and then followed up with telephone calls from the transcription department.  Pat Dunn, Transcription Supervisor for Medical Records, tells us that Botsford now batch prints only ten percent of the volume that was printed before batch faxing began.  In November of 1997, the Radiology department at Botsford began batch faxing also.  For the month of December 1997, the two departments combined batch faxed 11,081 reports.  Dr. Louis Spagnuolo, Botsford’s Physician Liaison, includes faxing sign up as part of the initial procedure when a new physician is added to staff.  This teamwork has resulted in substantial paper savings and many happy physicians.

One more suggestion from Pat Dunn, is to run the batch early in the morning.  Botsford’s Medical Records department begins the batch fax at 7:00 AM, which avoids the busy times of day for the physician’s offices.  This way, new reports are there waiting when physicians and staff arrive.  AAI recommends that various departments within a hospital batch fax at different times of the day.  Before deciding to batch fax during the nighttime hours, which may seem like the least intrusive time, communication must take place between the physician’s offices and the hospital.  If a receiving fax machine has been turned off before the batch is processed, reports will not be successfully faxed until manual intervention.

Karen Jason, Director Medical Records at Firelands Community Hospital in Sandusky, Ohio, also uses the TAź Demand Fax application.  This has enabled her department to respond quickly and easily to those frequent requests for copies.  She estimates that her department demand faxes 100 to 300 reports per week.  Karen finds demand faxing very useful when a patient is receiving follow-up care at an outlying clinic or physician’s office.  

AAI designed TAź’s Distribution component to offer a wide variety of faxing options.  Each department may have their own particular faxing program.  With this part of TAź’s electronic document management, Health Information Managers accomplish multiple goals such as faster report turnaround, reduced clerical time spent faxing and distributing printed copies, and a reduction in paper costs.  Ethel Arrington, Assistant Director HIM at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, tells us she particularly likes the nightly fax log which summarizes all three types of faxing activity from all departments for the previous day.  She recommends that this report be filed and archived.

Jan 1998 TAź News