Why Are Doctors Still Using Fax?

The healthcare industry is still running on fax technology as a reliable and secure communication tool to send and receive patients' sensitive data. While so many doctors and physicians have already migrated to online fax services as well as electronic health record (EHR) systems, there are some doctors that still rely on fax machines and prefer the traditional method.

It’s not unusual to see a big fax machine in the doctor's office as doctors and their staff are regularly using fax (both online and traditional). It is therefore important to acknowledge why doctors are still using fax and what types of documents they send and receive using this method?

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‍What types of documents do doctors send and receive via fax?

The documents are mostly about the patients, and doctors may send the patients' medical records to the hospitals, insurance companies, pharmacies, other practitioners, and the patients themselves. Here is the list of some of the most common documents that are transmitted over fax by doctors:

1. Sending nursing orders for particular patients, including special treatment and patients' preferences.
2. Sending medical information to insurance companies.
3. Sending urgent prescriptions.
4. Sending patients' charts and EKGs.
5. Sending patients' information to another practitioner for reference.

Note that, sometimes, the patients need to send their medical records to the doctor, and for such instances, an online fax service is the best choice. It is cheaper, more convenient, and faster, as patients get to use their phones’ camera to scan their documents and fax them right away.
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Why are these documents being sent over fax?

‍Privacy and security are the most important aspects when it comes to the patients' medical records. The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires a certain level of encryption to make sure that the patients' sensitive information are safe and will not be compromised by any unauthorized entity. Unlike email, fax is a HIPAA-secure method to send and receive such sensitive data, and nowadays, so many online fax services have managed to become HIPAA-compliant services. That's why doctors can easily send faxes using an online fax service.‍

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What about secure emails or EHR secure messaging? Secure orders cannot be transmitted via EHRs in a legally binding way, and secure emails are too expensive to be used in every doctor’s office. Therefore, a HIPAA-compliant service is the way to go.

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‍Traditional fax vs online fax service? Which one is better for doctors and the healthcare industry?

‍Fax is used by doctors, nurses, patients, pharmacies and any other person related to the healthcare industry. We cannot argue that. What we can argue about is choosing between online fax service and traditional fax machines. In a nutshell, an online fax service for doctors is much cheaper than buying a traditional fax machine, and it enables its users to send and receive faxes right from their mobile devices without the need to print a single document. Here are the advantages of online fax services over traditional fax machines with regards to the needs of doctors and their patients:

• It can be accessed from anywhere. Say, you are in the airport and waiting for your flight, using an online fax service you can easily fax your orders to the nurses in a hospital, or review the medical information of a new patient that you have just received.
• It's more secure. Other than being HIPAA compliant, your account is protected by a password and all your data is protected with high-grade SSL encryption, and don't forget about the fact that the patients' sensitive data won't longer be on the tray of the fax machine waiting for the right person to pick it up.
• It's paperless. Since all your sent and received documents are stored in a cloud storage, you don't need to print anything, which allows you to save a lot of paper. It also helps you organize your faxes online.
• It's cheaper. With an online fax service, you no longer need to worry about the high maintenance costs of your fax machines and you don't need to worry about repairing or replacing your old fax machine.
• Comes with a built-in scanner. Scan your documents using the camera of your smartphone.
• It is convenient. Using online fax services is much more convenient compared to the traditional fax machines.

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Fax.Plus facilitates easy & secure fax transmission for both doctors & patients

‍If you are a doctor looking for a reliable online fax service to manage all your faxing needs and send and receive sensitive information on a daily-basis, Fax.Plus has got you covered. On the other hand, if you are a patient and you need to send and receive fax occasionally, Fax.Plus has got you covered as well. You just need to pick the plan that suits your needs the best and leave the rest to us. Here are some of the advantages of Fax.Plus against other online fax services when it comes to providing a fax service for doctors:

• Email to Fax & Fax to Email features: It means you get to send and receive fax right from your mailbox. Learn how to send fax from email.
• Google Integrations: This feature enables you to easily send and receive fax from Google Docs and Google Sheets. Learn more about Fax.Plus Google integration.
• Electronic Signature: Simply sign documents before sending them as a fax. Learn how to sign documents.
• Fax.Plus also comes with the option to store your documents in a cloud storage, access all your files from different platforms including Web, Android, and iOS, and it also enables you to get a dedicated fax number from 40+ different countries all around the world.

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Join Fax.Plus now, and enjoy the many benefits of online faxing for both doctors and patients.