Do you use a fax machine at work?

[disneysteve]

I've heard a couple of comments recently, when someone mentioned sending or receiving a fax, saying that faxes are obsolete and nobody uses them anymore.

I was surprised to hear that because at least in my field, medicine, we send and receive faxes constantly. I got to my office about 45 minutes ago and I've already sent 4 faxes and responded to several others.

It sounds like this isn't true elsewhere. Do you utilize faxing at work and, if so, what type of work do you do? If you don't use faxes, what has replaced it? Email, I'm guessing.

We get a lot of forms that need to be signed and returned. Without faxes, we would need to print out the email, sign it, scan it in, and email it back. It is far more efficient to just sign and return a fax. My staff would waste a huge amount of time if we didn't have faxing capabilities.

[Fishindude77]

Yep, FAX is pretty much a thing of the past with us (construction), gets very little use anymore. Everything is done via email.

The small amount of time required to scan something is incidental, as all of our printers are also scanners. Lot's of things don't require a signed authorization, just an email approval.

FAX was a huge breakthrough when they first hit the scene. Saved a ton of time on the phone having to explain things and allowed us to send documents immediately -vs- hand delivery, overnight UPS / FedX or snail mail. It's pretty much a dinosaur now.

[MonkeyMama]

Accounting. Very paperwork intensive, so lots of faxing still done. (My husband thinks that sounds insane, but he has mostly not worked the past 15 years. I am supposing they don't do much faxing in his current office).

For us, I think some of it is a function of the age of our clients. We still have some 70-something clients who don't use computers. I am guessing that most below a certain age don't use faxes very often. But the fax machines are part of the big fancy copy machines that we do need (lots of paper) and so the option is there when we need it. People still utilize.

The only time I ever fax anyone is if they don't have e-mail access. Either they don't have a computer or it's probably a government entity (like the IRS) where fax is the easiest/fastest way to communicate.

[bjl584]

everything is scanned and emailed where I work

[disneysteve]

Very paperwork intensive

Yes, medicine is extremely paperwork intensive.

The only time I ever fax anyone is if they don't have e-mail access.

We never fax patients. All of the faxing is between medical providers, insurance companies, pharmacies, government agencies, etc. Many of them require things to be faxed. They won't accept them any other way.

[MonkeyMama]

We never fax patients. All of the faxing is between medical providers, insurance companies, pharmacies, government agencies, etc. Many of them require things to be faxed. They won't accept them any other way.

For us, most the government agencies will take snail mail, but it just takes 10 times as long.

Incidentally, most my clients are medical offices, so maybe they are more likely (than average) to fax.

[disneysteve]

For us, most the government agencies will take snail mail, but it just takes 10 times as long.

I don't know if that's even an option for our stuff. The forms clearly state to return by fax. Sometimes that's the only contact info given so I couldn't mail it in if I wanted to.

[Nutria]

All of the faxing is between medical providers, insurance companies, pharmacies, government agencies, etc. Many of them require things to be faxed. They won't accept them any other way.

Interesting, since my doctors, insurance & pharmacy are computerized out the wazoo. No paper prescriptions: the dr. looks up the store in his computer and beams an Rx over to them. Seemingly ditto for insurance claims, which are processed more quickly than would be possible if people had to transcribe faxed claim forms (or OCR them and check for errors).

[disneysteve]

Interesting, since my doctors, insurance & pharmacy are computerized out the wazoo. No paper prescriptions: the dr. looks up the store in his computer and beams an Rx over to them. Seemingly ditto for insurance claims, which are processed more quickly than would be possible if people had to transcribe faxed claim forms (or OCR them and check for errors).

We do electronic prescribing as well. Most refill requests come in through the computer system but some come by fax. Pharmacies will also send a fax when a drug isn't covered and requires prior authorization. Mail order pharmacies will often send requests by fax.

I don't believe any insurance claims are handled by fax.

The biggest use of the fax is for forms like disability forms, home care forms, pre-op clearance forms, and more.

There's also a lot of faxing between providers. If a patient goes to see their cardiologist, I'll get a faxed report after the visit, for example. Or a specialist might call and ask us to fax over a patient's most recent lab work. Stuff like that.

[Nutria]

There's also a lot of faxing between providers. If a patient goes to see their cardiologist, I'll get a faxed report after the visit, for example. Or a specialist might call and ask us to fax over a patient's most recent lab work. Stuff like that.

I guess there's a benefit to going to a comprehensive clinic/hospital: all of our records are fully integrated.

[disneysteve]

I guess there's a benefit to going to a comprehensive clinic/hospital: all of our records are fully integrated.

The "dream" of the government pushing everyone to go to electronic medical records was that we'd all be able to communicate easily. The reality is that we're generating more paper than ever before because there are hundreds of different EMR systems and they don't talk to each other. Communication is far worse than it was when everyone kept paper records.

[msomnipotent]

I faxed something to Prime RX not too long ago. I had the option of scanning and emailing, but my printer is a jerk. It doesn't scan if it doesn't feel inspired.

I occasionally get my fax machine out of the basement to handle robocalls. I read that robocallers delete your phone number if a fax machine picks up, so I let the machine answer every phone call unless I hear, "Oh my God! What is that noise???" and the other end. Even then, maybe I pick up, maybe I don't. I get so many scam calls that I'm seriously considering cancelling my landline.

[disneysteve]

I get so many scam calls that I'm seriously considering cancelling my landline.

I get a bunch of scam calls on my cell phone so don't think that will prevent the problem.

[msomnipotent]

I don't really get them on my cell for some reason. I got one yesterday, but the last one was maybe a month ago. They seem to come in waves, though. I will probably be getting a few today now that I have said something. I still report all the calls to donotcall.gov. Not that it does anything, but I still feel better afterwards.

[kork13]

Fax machines have survived largely due to the (false) presumption that fax machines are "more secure" than other means of electronic transmission. This is most prevalent in the financial, medical, and (to some extent) government sectors (notably excepted: DoD, DoS). That belief is a crock, because in most cases, fax machines do not encrypt data in any way. Plus, many (most?) phone service providers are moving to VOIP transmission anyway, so phone (fax) signals are being digitized and pushed across the internet regardless, so you don't even get the quasi-security of hard-line transmission that can only be tapped with physical access to the line. There's no security protocols on either end, so you never know who actually receives it.

Also, I don't see how a fax machine is easier. Half the time when I've used a fax, the transmission fails, or the recipient doesn't know to expect it and doesn't ever receive/process what is sent, or needs to get it resent multiple times. Besides, it's still churning out paper copies of everything, and if you have electronic forms (as is frequently the case anymore), you've got to print them out just so you can fax them.

By contrast, many email services offer industry-standard data encryption, which is by far the biggest reason to use email over fax. Not everyone uses it, but it's a readily available option for sending documents with sensitive/confidential information. Scanning a document for email, while I acknowledge it is an extra step, is simple with a document feeder tray (standard on most multifunction copiers & printers). Many scanners can even scan directly to email, so you just input the recipient's email address & it eliminates the extra step.