Carle Clinic prescribes itself a new fax remedy
The Client
One of the largest private physician groups in the United States, Carle Clinic Association comprises more than 300 physicians practicing in more than 50 specialties and subspecialties. Through a network of 10 branch clinics, a variety of outpatient services, and residency programs, Carle Clinic physicians can meet healthcare needs throughout east central Illinois. Their 2,500-plus employees send approximately 2,000 faxes per day.
The Challenge
Carle Clinic employees use an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system that produces e-prescriptions. The e-prescriptions go to an outbound fax queue, where they are picked up by a batch job that submits them to the fax system. The fax system sends the prescriptions to pharmacies, where they are filled for patients.
Carle Clinic was dissatisfied with their Castelle fax system because it could not adequately handle their ever-increasing fax volume. The Castelle product did not provide a high availability, always-up system. Therefore, Carle Clinic sought a new fax server solution that would:
- Significantly boost the existing outbound fax capacity
- Seamlessly interface with the EMR system
- Be transparent to users
- Support server clustering and load balancing
- Reduce calls to the Carle Clinic help desk
- Provide scalability to handle fax-volume growth
- Ensure future-readiness for a possible migration to a VoIP network
The Solution
Given how important timely fax transmissions are for the healthcare industry, Carle Clinic needed a reliable fax solution that would provide the best possible service for their patients. “The system we use to fax our prescriptions is no exception. When it comes to the well-being of our patients, Carle Clinic never settles for less than the best,” emphasized Carle Clinic’s Mark Fred.
After consulting several vendors, and briefly considering a Captaris RightFax product, Carle Clinic settled on Sagem-Interstar’s LightningFAX® solution. Sagem-Interstar’s prompt response, personalized service, and comprehensive understanding of Carle Clinic’s current and future fax requirements, were reasons for the selection. The final recommendation comprised a new infrastructure with LightningFAX Enterprise Edition fax server software at its heart.
The workflow of the redundant Sagem-Interstar fax solution, between the EMR system and the PSTN, includes:
For the EMR interface, rasterization and internal fax processing:
- A LightningFAX API module interface to an Epic system
- A LightningFAX ActiveX module interface to an InteGreat IC-Chart system
- A LightningFAX Exchange SMTP gateway interface to a Microsoft Exchange Server
For the redundancy, PSTN connection and outbound fax delivery:
- LightningFAX Enterprise Edition software on two active/passive Windows Cluster Servers
- LightningFAX drivers on two Windows PCs with 16-channel digital fax boards, connected to two partial T1 lines
Results and Benefits
With the LightningFAX implementation, Carle Clinic’s fax volume has skyrocketed. It has increased more than six-fold to 60,000 outbound faxes per month, compared to 8,000–10,000 with the Castelle system.
While the huge increase in fax volume is very impressive, it is underscored by the undeniable benefits. According to Carle Clinic’s Mark Fred, it brings the “peace of mind that we don’t have to worry about our prescriptions being faxed. The system runs reliably in the background with very little upkeep.”
LightningFAX’s behind-the-scenes robustness means that while the number of faxes has multiplied, the number of calls to the Carle Clinic help desk has dropped dramatically. Both end-users and help-desk employees are benefiting from increased productivity and full confidence in their new fax solution.
Now that Carle Clinic has the award-winning LightningFAX powerfully and reliably handling all their current fax needs, they are already planning to expand to more channels. And with a possible migration to a VoIP network in the near future, Carle Clinic chose the perfect vendor to handle their future needs too – the global leader in boardless IP fax.
