Comment on why are fax machines still used by medical systems?

• halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  See, you’re thinking 21st century, but this is both a healthcare management technology and a government regulation issue, so you’re 2 centuries too new. We need to go back to 1843 with the electric printing telegraph, which used pendulums and electric signals to scan images and send them over telegraph wires. That’s where healthcare technology regulations stopped.

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  • 4am@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That is patently false. Encrypted email and patient ports are absolutely allowed under regulation.

    What you have here is a practice that has probably been in operation since the 80s or before, and they refuse to change their ways.

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    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Well before.

      And “refuse to change their ways” - are you going to underwrite the project to implement a transition and hold all the liability for the risks?

      Its not like changing systems is just a click of a button, this is an extensive project, that you better get right or you’re dealing with records going the wrong way, potentially having serious life and safety implications.

      Plus, you have to maintain this legacy fax system because not everyone else has migrated to something new. So for the remainder of your career, it still doesn’t go away, and you’ll have to continue to pay for its maintenance.

      Companies have systems they’ve built up over years, that works. They’ll move forward as it makes fiscal sense.

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    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I never claimed that email or patient portals weren’t allowed.

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• TORFdot0@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Providers have a market incentive to provide the most convenient experience to their patients. The market incentive does not exist for sending information to other providers so they will take the path of least resistance to be compliant with regulation

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  • cheers_queers@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    read my post again. this is a provider that is probably losing business because people can’t get their referral in to see them unless they walk it through the door themselves. how is that convenient?

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    • King_Bob_IV@startrek.website ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I have never seen a specialist without a giant wait-list. These providers tend to have too many patients so they have a negative incentive for trying to make it easier to reach them.

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• Num10ck@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  because the referring physicians refuse to log into multiple systems and the providers refuse to log into multiple systems and theres no universal trusted system.

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• Killn1@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  m banks into a fax server. So all the same fundamental comm tech (so fully backwards-compatible), but a better solution for the company with that infrastructure. Such a company has little motivation to completely change to something new, since they’d have to retain this for anyone that hasn’t switched. Chicken-and-egg problem, that’s slowly moving forward.

  Thats the thing. Most if not all insurance companies HAVE provider portals. They cannot get rid of fax until every mom and pop clinic, dentist office, and hospital use these portals.

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