Fax machines
#16
Banned
Joined: Dec 2015
Location: california
Posts: 6,035
Re: Fax machines
Now that is a good idea. Direct sending of RX to the pharmacy. My doctor is 30 sommething and uses electronic prescriptions but he has to print them out and so I can take them in.
He like most doctors in my experience in Canada will not fax refills and patient has to come in for one otherwise the doctor cant bill for a visit.
I would love it though if the script could be sent in a head of time as you describe. Would save time.
He like most doctors in my experience in Canada will not fax refills and patient has to come in for one otherwise the doctor cant bill for a visit.
I would love it though if the script could be sent in a head of time as you describe. Would save time.
I have a medication which I have to take permanently. When the refills run out I call the doctor. He sends a message to my pharmacy by computer which includes authorization for 5 more refills. When the pharmacy have filled the prescription they leave a voice mail message on my phone that it's ready for pickup.
#17
Re: Fax machines
There are systems such as 'surescripts' that offer a secure interface between the doctor's office "EMR" program and many supported pharmacies. Completely bypasses the need for faxing or emailing. Works great but many smaller 'mom and pop' doctor's offices don't have the expertise to setup these types of interfaces and/or they don't want to pay for the service.
The good news is, all medical offices are required now to use some form of EMR (computerized practice management - Electronic Medical Record), and once you have that, interfacing in this manner does become easier.
The good news is, all medical offices are required now to use some form of EMR (computerized practice management - Electronic Medical Record), and once you have that, interfacing in this manner does become easier.
I'm not aware of any veterinary practice management software that interfaces directly with a pharmacy network, nor do I have any intention of making a switch to one that does. I can't imagine that being a selling point.
On the animal side of medicine, I don't see the fax machine going anywhere for a long time.
#19
Re: Fax machines
Some financial institutions in the UK still only use faxes or post, especially if you are an overseas customer.
#20
Re: Fax machines
I've been working in healthcare IT for the past 10 years now, and Faxes are one of my pet peeves. I agree with everyone posting here that faxing sucks, but - it is considered secure. Emailing a document is, fundamentally, not (guaranteed to be) secure. Now, if you use a secure email implementation, it 'can be' secure, but by default, if you go in and scan a doc, then attach it to email, and send it, that transmission may not be secure (from end to end).
Not that I disagree with your general comments about e-mail, one of my pet peeves are people who use webmail without SSL certificates, which Exchange and Office 365 force you to have, but various open source programs don't. The problem is that TLS and SSL do put an overhead on the server but seriously nowadays with how fast computers are, who cares?
Faxes though overall are way less secure. There are various ways of spoofing sending and receiving numbers and intercepting them over-the-wire.
#21
Re: Fax machines
I have a medication which I have to take permanently. When the refills run out I call the doctor. He sends a message to my pharmacy by computer which includes authorization for 5 more refills. When the pharmacy have filled the prescription they leave a voice mail message on my phone that it's ready for pickup.
#22
Re: Fax machines
From my new play, Service Economy USA:
"Mom, dad, you know all that money you spent on sending me to Trump University to get a Bachelor's Degree in Photocopying and Toner Cartridge Management and the tens of thousands of dollars I built up in student loans?"
"Yes son?"
"Well I've just gotten a job at Mega-Corp USA. I've been appointed the Vice-President of Fax Machine Operations."
"Does it come with health insurance?"
"Yes, $5,000 deductible and a $50 co-pay on prescriptions."
"You done good son."
"Maybe one day I'll be promoted to Executive Vice-President of Fax Machine Operations, then they'll let me change the toner. Or maybe even Vice-President of Corporate Twitter Account Communications."
"You can dream son, you can dream."
"Mom, dad, you know all that money you spent on sending me to Trump University to get a Bachelor's Degree in Photocopying and Toner Cartridge Management and the tens of thousands of dollars I built up in student loans?"
"Yes son?"
"Well I've just gotten a job at Mega-Corp USA. I've been appointed the Vice-President of Fax Machine Operations."
"Does it come with health insurance?"
"Yes, $5,000 deductible and a $50 co-pay on prescriptions."
"You done good son."
"Maybe one day I'll be promoted to Executive Vice-President of Fax Machine Operations, then they'll let me change the toner. Or maybe even Vice-President of Corporate Twitter Account Communications."
"You can dream son, you can dream."
#23
Re: Fax machines
Faxes are way less secure than e-mail, any moron can spoof the sending number, how many calls do you get a day that claim to be from number X and it's someone in India trying to con you? Now if I can get into your SMTP I can spoof any e-mail address I want, but even basic SMTP implementations don't allow you to do that without a username and password.
Not that I disagree with your general comments about e-mail, one of my pet peeves are people who use webmail without SSL certificates, which Exchange and Office 365 force you to have, but various open source programs don't. The problem is that TLS and SSL do put an overhead on the server but seriously nowadays with how fast computers are, who cares?
Faxes though overall are way less secure. There are various ways of spoofing sending and receiving numbers and intercepting them over-the-wire.
Not that I disagree with your general comments about e-mail, one of my pet peeves are people who use webmail without SSL certificates, which Exchange and Office 365 force you to have, but various open source programs don't. The problem is that TLS and SSL do put an overhead on the server but seriously nowadays with how fast computers are, who cares?
Faxes though overall are way less secure. There are various ways of spoofing sending and receiving numbers and intercepting them over-the-wire.
Whilst I agree that for the web TLS should be standard and common practice, the termination of it is still incredibly CPU heavy and bound. The overhead to each transaction is crazy on a large-scale application.
#24
Re: Fax machines
True and seeing as I'm just setting up SPF validation of one of my domains I should have mentioned that.
#25
Re: Fax machines
We get pretty confidential stuff regularly faxed to the office. I had to send some paperwork to an insurance company whilst at work. They didn't use email, they told me to fax it (Geico). Can't say I'm really bothered about such things though. I find the wide use of cheques and old spice products on supermarket shelves weirder than the use of fax machines.
#26
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2015
Location: New Jersey, USA
Posts: 564
Re: Fax machines
I still found it crazy that when I bought a car from a dealer in another state I handed over a cashiers check for the balance and drove it away without them doing any sort of validation on it - in the UK nobody in their right mind would let you drive a car away without cleared funds!
#27
Re: Fax machines
I still found it crazy that when I bought a car from a dealer in another state I handed over a cashiers check for the balance and drove it away without them doing any sort of validation on it - in the UK nobody in their right mind would let you drive a car away without cleared funds!
#28
Re: Fax machines
I still found it crazy that when I bought a car from a dealer in another state I handed over a cashiers check for the balance and drove it away without them doing any sort of validation on it - in the UK nobody in their right mind would let you drive a car away without cleared funds!
#29
Re: Fax machines
I took all of our fax machines out and threw them in the dumpster five years ago.
We had a boat load of the damn things. it was like walking into a 1980s episode of Dallas.
Lots of wailing at the time, but not one single issue since.
We had a boat load of the damn things. it was like walking into a 1980s episode of Dallas.
Lots of wailing at the time, but not one single issue since.
#30
Re: Fax machines
Faxes are way less secure than e-mail, any moron can spoof the sending number, how many calls do you get a day that claim to be from number X and it's someone in India trying to con you? Now if I can get into your SMTP I can spoof any e-mail address I want, but even basic SMTP implementations don't allow you to do that without a username and password.
Seriously, and I mean seriously. If you are responsible for your companies email then please hire a consultant. This is much more complicated than you surmise.