The Switch To Paperless

Fax machine dependency used to be like a disease, and in a very real sense, an epidemic. In Lafayette, Louisiana, a long-term care pharmacy provider provided quality services to nursing homes and assisted living facilities utilizing a highly structured order fulfillment process that invariably began with a fax machine. Endowed with a large customer base, faxes of prescription orders were sent in heavy volumes. A typical day could entail 350-500 orders and the volume seldom dipped below 250 orders per day. This volume produced a blizzard of paper and fed astronomical toner costs even with the single fax, which consistently broke down and was in need of servicing or repair. Three full-time technicians were on 24-hour call, seven days a week, just in case the fax went down. Orders when they were filled were inefficiently administered and often arrived late, if at all.

To decrease their paper dependency and increase productivity to tolerable levels, paperless content management software was installed. Although the fax machine remained a fixture, the new paperless content management system now grabbed incoming fax orders electronically, while organizing them on an internal server. Technicians can now easily retrieve orders from a queue for processing. Conveniently, orders are stored electronically rather than in file cabinets for ease of retrieval for audit purposes. The paperless integration was easy to implement, cost effective, and allows the Lafayette pharmacy provider to meet growing business needs without placing an excessive strain on human resources.

At least the long-term pharmacy provider’s fax machine supported paperless content management software. Sometimes a scanner or a bar code scanner might be required along with add-on software such as electronic signature. It’s fortunate that the Louisiana provider already possessed a high-speed and secure connection so that a quality connection could be maintained for large amounts of incoming data. It's also fortunate that implementation costs of the paperless system were modest enough to allow for the switch.

By: David York

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. Learn more by visiting www.foxmeadows.com.