Robots compound and dispense pills at hospitals and pharmacies. But now there’s something even better, faxes.
"Fax is the only guaranteed way to transmit something electronically," as Brent Lothrop, president of The Fax Guys, a Burnsville, Minn., reseller of Canadian-made RightFax software. "That's why it's widely used to move documents in health care, where there are federal privacy rules."
Desktop faxing delivers documents directly to computers, saving time and money, letting healthcare providers quickly, accurately, and securely submit prescriptions to pharmacies,according to Pam Bernardino.
Prescriptions transmitted directly to the pharmacy can eliminate error, and reduce the staggering 7,000 deaths from medication mistakes which occur every year.
Shifting to electronic health records (EHRs), as required by healthcare reform, also helps, by allowing providers to keep track of potential drug interactions and patient history.
“Allergies and risk factors can be automatically cross-referenced to ensure the patient gets the safest drug,” Bernardino reported, referencing Production Messaging, which permits medical data to travel safely, securely, and accurately.
According to a recent survey, although many healthcare providers are moving over to iPads and iPhones to run some parts of their practices, the desktop remains the key way most physicians prefer for management, electronic prescribing, and getting access to electronic health records.
The survey also noted that, though 62 percent of doctors have tablets, 75 percent of them use their desktops for practice management tasks. By comparison, 25 percent used a laptop for such work, 10 percent an iPad or another tablet and six percent a smartphone.
Fifty-two percent of doctors use the desktop for prescribing. But the laptop is a close second; 35 percent of doctors use them.
The report states that due to a stable annual growth of 15 percent or more, the worldwide fax market is projected to be nearly $2 billion this year.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
