Becker's Hospital Review

43 Executive Briefing are crushing information-transfer service line agreements. We can scan inbound faxes and route them using optical character recognition or barcodes to any number of people or systems. Likewise, we can configure outbound faxing based on business rules or system events. And finally, we have workflow rules to cover the tasks in-between. Q: What other intelligent fax features should you consider? WR: Dashboards and reporting are two other key features to fully leverage your fax solution. Fax environments can be mis- sion-critical and complex, so a dashboard with configurable alarms is a must-have for monitoring system stats and getting ahead of problems. For auditing purposes, it is important to have a fax solution that will log detailed information on each transfer. This way a compliance officer or auditor can see the who, what, where and when of the transfer. Secure File Transfer Q: What is secure file transfer? WR: Secure File Transfer or SFT is a solution that was developed to securely move data of any size or type from point A to point B. Healthcare SFT solutions support HIPAA compliance, auto- mation, integration, monitoring and auditing. It was built to be simple to use, scalable and flexible enough to be integrated into complex healthcare environments/processes. Whereas fax covers almost all paper-based PHI transfers, SFT is for all of the other EMR/PHI files that do not have to be converted from/into faxes. Actually, it can be any type of file with no size limit and HIPAA-compliant security. Q: How are these files being transferred today? WR: One method by which many organizations share data is by using FTP or file transfer protocol solutions. This solution was developed in the 1970s and is still being used today. Q: What are the limitations of FTP? WR: Simply put, organizations cannot depend on FTP as a core file-transfer solution anymore. In almost all cases, users have had to develop custom workarounds to extend its functionality, make it easier to use and to integrate into complex healthcare environments. All of these extensions require custom solu- tions that are difficult to develop, expensive to maintain and inefficient. Organizations cannot simply stop using fax, but they need to stop using FTP-based solutions. Q: So what should I look for in a SFT solution? WR: Look for a solution that has a history of being deployed in the healthcare environment and one that has been optimized for the nuances of the industry. Specifically, it must be HIPAA compliant. It should have a compliance/audit user-role and supporting reporting. It should have a rules-engine that sup- ports automation and have APIs that were designed for the healthcare environment. And finally, it needs to extremely sim- ple and easy to use. In fact, our user experience mirrors email, so user behavior doesn't change. Enter a destination, a note, an attachment and send. But unlike email, you can maintain com- plete control of the file and understand who has access, what type of access they have and when access occurs. Furthermore, you can automatically 'push' and 'pull' files to and from other systems and devices. Fax and SFT Q: OK let's talk about cost savings — are the ROIs good? WR: The ROIs for both modern fax and SFT are similar. Both base their economics on automating manual processes and removing legacy hardware and software. The majority of the savings often comes from process automation or removing low-value manual-steps in the document flow process. For example, the sort, scan and file process can be reduced from 15 minutes (on a good day) to seconds. And that savings can be huge. I would estimate about one-third of our customers achieve ROI after three months and that number goes up to 50 percent after six months. Q: What about cloud vs. server based solutions? WR: Cloud-based file transfer solutions are generating a lot of interest but there are solid business reasons for using a server or hybrid solution. Cloud-transfer has all the advantages of the SaaS model, including small footprint, predictable costs, con- tinuous upgrades, dynamic capacity and disaster recovery. But organizations could also select on-premises solutions because they want complete and direct control of the environment. For fax, there is also a hybrid configuration — use a fax server as your main faxing system but then have a cloud-service available for peak loads and business continuity. The right solution is driven by the environment and the business objectives. Q: What should I look for in a secure document transfer vendor? WR: I would look for a vendor with extensive healthcare expe- rience and a deep understanding of the industry. This helps with everything from product development to integration to support. Look for a vendor with a complete set of document transfer solutions so you can select the right solution for your environment. Look for a vendor that is best-in-class that will continue to invest and focus on the technology. At Biscom, we have been helping healthcare organizations with secure document transfer solutions for 30 years. We have seen it all and we can help. n Biscom is a world leader in secure enterprise document delivery with solutions including the award-winning enterprise FAXCOM® Server and FAXCOM Anywhere cloud fax solutions, Biscom Secure File Transfer(SFT), and Verosync, an enterprise-ready file synchro- nization and sharing solution. With over 30 years helping healthcare organizations with secure communications solutions, Bis- com is the industry's recognized innovation and customer service leader. Learn more at www.biscom.com or call 1-800-477-2472. I.T. Brought to you by

• Cover