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Just the Fax, Ma’am
IT Support San Antonio retains fax machines as a communication solution between medical support locations. The primary reason is HIPAA-compliant security. Faxes represent a point-to-point data transfer solution, meaning hacking or other means of interception aren’t a great risk. The security of patients is absolutely integral and exploitation less likely through fax. However, that doesn’t mean fax solutions aren’t without their downsides.
For one thing, faxing requires human intervention directly. Someone has to print out the information, then whoever has printed it out must walk to the fax machine, physically dial the number of the institution who needs the data, send it, and ensure it gets where it needs to be. Not all institutions use confirmation protocols and, sometimes, a fax can be lost in the shuffle for years.
In order to help manage the inconvenience of faxing, many use email servers to store faxes as time goes by; but this is inefficient on many different levels. Firstly, email was never designed for this purpose, so it has vulnerabilities that are hard to overcome. Secondly, managerial oversight is severely lacking.
Time
There’s also this to consider: in many situations where faxes are stored, there’s a time limit to storage. They’re not usually going to stay around longer than a year or two, and sometimes, their data is necessary many years down the line.
The solution here is fax management which employs automated services to surrogate human intervention. Granted, there’s no way to totally get rid of humans in the equation, but there are ways to diminish the time necessary for such management. Categorization, storage, routing, and many other things which traditionally required staff can be taken over by such automated techniques, and IT Support San Antonio can help bring you that automation.
Some Numbers
Consider the numbers: if you have to send 1,000 faxes a month and consolidation of automation solutions can eliminate three minutes per fax, that’s 3,000 minutes per month or 36,000 minutes a year, which works out to 600 hours. If dedicated, a knowledgeable staff time is worth $25 an hour— which is a fairly conservative estimate for most medical practices— that equates to roughly $15,000 a year in savings. At a rate like that, it’s possible that the efficiency increase facilitated through automated solutions which make faxing less of a time waster may very well pay for the professional tech service. The numbers described above assume an average of 33 faxes daily or less than two an hour. That’s a pretty conservative estimate even for a small-to-medium-sized healthcare operation, fax-wise. The potential for savings is substantial with an app that could save even three minutes of time per app. Cumulatively, 99 minutes an hour can be put to very good use if it can be shaved off through fax management apps.
Making the Switch
To condense it down, advantages of fax management software include:
- Time retention
- Asset retention
- Ease of management
- Better storage solutions
IT Support San Antonio through ICS offers fax management solutions that can retain your healthcare operation’s HIPAA compliance while saving time through elimination of redundant fax-related processes. Contact us for cost-effective solutions that will likely save you more than you spend in the long run.
Further reading
ICS is a Texas-based 40-year-old technology company specializing in Managed IT, VoIP, Video Conferencing and Video Surveillance solutions for US and International businesses. ICS has over 4000 regional installations and specializes in multi-site businesses between 25 and 2500 employees. ICS’s customers enjoy the experience of ICS’s Total Care program which provides clients flat fee services with obsolescence and growth protection. Whether a customer elects to deploy their IT, Video Conferencing or VoIP in the cloud or on the customer’s premise, ICS can provide a full turn-key solution for our clients under one flat monthly fee.