Advanced Home Care
Since 1993 Advanced Home Care has supplied medical services and equipment to patients in North Carolina. In recent years Advanced Home Care has extendedoperations into Virginia and has grown to nearly 1,000 employees.

The Challenge
This rapid growth unfortunately caused some technical headaches with their existing document delivery solution. When Advanced Home Care provides a medical device or medical service to a patient, paperwork is generated. Typically, a form requires a signature from the patient’s Primary Care Physician and then that form needs to be submitted to a healthcare payer. Different devices or services require different forms and different processes; a home oxygen machine requires different forms with different signatures than does a physical therapy session, for example. Most of these forms are transmitted by fax.

Unfortunately, the existing fax server caused a variety of problems as Advanced Home Care grew. The old fax server was not easily upgradeable to handle the increased traffic and its client software was inflexible. Users were forced to be members of specific fax “groups” and no user could belong to more than one of these groups. Since one person could never see a fax that wasn’t in his or her mailbox, this made it nearly impossible for Advanced Home Care team members to cover for each other. “Forwarding faxes and tracking processes became very complicated,” said John Harrison, Network Engineer for Advanced Home Care. As well, the IT staff ran into a number of technical difficulties when trying to work with remote fax servers via Citrix.

The Solution
Recognizing that change was needed, the network engineers at Advanced Home Care started a comprehensive review of alternative fax server solutions. The IT group enlisted the aid of key fax users from all areas. The goal was to find a solution that would meet the needs of the most people, implement that solution on a limited scale, and then roll it out to the rest of the company. After several months of research, Advanced Home Care determined that Biscom’s FAXCOM Suite for Windows was the perfect choice.

FAXCOM Suite for Windows provided immediate improvements. With the capability to support anywhere from 2 to 96 fax ports per server, the FAXCOM Server could easily handle the existing traffic and seamlessly expand to support additional volume during the rollout period and beyond. Since the solution is easily managed remotely via Microsoft Management Console (MMC), the IT staff found remote server management to be simple and reliable. The user experience was also significantly improved. Biscom’s FAXCOM Client application allowed users to view multiple mailboxes, preview faxes without opening them, and delegate mailbox permissions to alternate users as needed. Now any user could manage multiple streams of fax traffic right from their desktop.

The most important improvement offered by FAXCOM Suite for Windows was Advanced Fax Routing. Previously, each different form had to be faxed to a different fax number in order to ensure that it got to the right group and went through the right process. This resulted in a large number of active fax numbers and considerable confusion for patients, physicians and payers. By using a combination of barcode recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, Biscom’s Advanced Fax Routing can identify inbound faxes and automate most of the ensuing fax process. This not only reduces the amount of human input required, but it also simplifies the system for everyone. “By implementing AFR we were able to greatly reduce the amount of fax numbers - sometimes at a ratio of 6:1.” said Mr. Harrison.

The Implementation
Biscom’s support team worked closely with Advanced Home Care to ensure that the new FAXCOM solution integrated seamlessly with their business. This included support and advice on search terms, and a detailed analysis of existing faxing workflows. “The support from Biscom really made the difference,” said Mr. Harrison. “We have some very complicated workflows and routing terms and we wanted to make sure that the team leaders were able to provide feedback while we automated their process. The way the Biscom group demonstrated their product and handled our questions was very thorough.”

The 8-port FAXCOM Suite for Windows solution was implemented and immediately began providing service to locations in North Carolina’s Triad region. As the functionality was rolled out to locations in Piedmont and Virginia, the system became a critical part of Advanced Home Care’s business. Currently the system is handling over 1,100 faxes each month and a second 8-port fax server has been established for load-balancing and disaster recovery. “People have come to rely upon it,” said Mr. Harrison.

Advanced Home Care investigated a number of fax server vendors before choosing Biscom and the deciding factor went beyond pricing and functionality. “Biscom’s people made the difference” said Mr. Harrison. “They gave us the best feeling from a support standpoint. We felt they would be around if we needed help and they were great about sending us equipment and giving us tips. We really appreciate the excellent support team. We know what good and bad is, and it’s definitely very good with Biscom!"