Biscom Keeps Finger on the Pulse of Healthcare Industry Needs

With the massive amounts of sensitive information that they handle and the timeliness with which it needs to be disseminated, today's healthcare providers face unique communications challenges. Mercy Health System of Southeastern Pennsylvania manages a network of four major hospitals in the Greater Philadelphia area, with several more facilities soon to be added. Steve Walker is in charge of IT network administration for the health system, and has been instrumental in the evolution of their internal communications infrastructure with the implementation of Biscom's FAXCOM fax server technology.

The advantages of network faxing are numerous: protection from viruses, providing a more secure delivery method than email, verifiable transmission log, one-to-one connectivity and ease-of-use from users computer desktops. Furthermore, Mercy has realized many competitive advantages with the implementation of FAXCOM including; enhanced doctor and patient relationships due to the ability to respond to requests in a more timely manner, and the opportunity to expand their business due to the inherent efficiencies of the fax server system.

One common challenge for all healthcare providers is finding solutions that can interface with all of the applications on their disparate networks. "We went from fax machines to a VAX-based system using (a third party) fax server via modems as an interim step in our labs. Other departments used a variety of other systems," explains Walker. "Then we started looking for a permanent solution, so that we could centralize our divergent systems throughout our various departments. Biscom was one of the few that was up to the task, and provided the best overall solution."

Biscom's FAXCOM is in use at Mercy now, allowing the centralization of resources across their four hospital systems. FAXCOM provides an extremely cost-effective solution that enables Mercy to act as a central data hub for all patient billing, radiology, lab results and standard fax traffic for the entire network.

Other areas where the FAXCOM system has been implemented successfully are the Mercy Health Systems Lab and Radiology departments. When doctors send their patients to hospitals in the Mercy network for blood tests or x-rays, the results all pass through the Siemens radiology or Sunquest lab system, and are then automatically faxed directly to the doctors' offices with the corresponding fax covers. Response to patients has greatly improved as well, now that these results can be disseminated and delivered much more quickly, thereby providing doctors and their patients with better service, faster results and, potentially, greater piece of mind.

"The competitive advantages we gain with FAXCOM are the horsepower (the ability to handle our volume of 20-30 thousand faxes per week) and flexibility of the system," states Walker. "The administration of the system is very simple and the support has been absolutely excellent. The system has performed exactly as expected."

Since 1986, Biscom has provided the healthcare industry with reliable enterprise fax management and secure document delivery technologies. Biscom provides complete turnkey and software only information technology solutions to some of the world's leading companies. The company's FAXCOM servers provide enterprise-wide solutions that are reliable, scalable and flexible.