Since 2000, SCI Solutions has been providing online scheduling and access management tools to the healthcare marketplace. SCI Solutions provides a set of hosted, Web-based tools that allow hospitals, physicians, clinics and patients to organize orders, scheduling, pre-registration and patient billing information easily and efficiently. By using these tools, healthcare providers can manage access to patient appointment details, and all related payment information. With an emphasis on managing the required resources for scheduled appointments and ensuring time-savings and efficiency for physicians, clinicians and patient’s, SCI Solutions supports over 200 hospitals nationwide as well as a large number of clinics.

The Problem
SCI Solutions Schedule Maximizer application provides a Web portal that enables users to access their systems, though not all of their customers have access to computers. In some cases, physicians work in remote locations or in small offices without Internet access. With a mandate to support as many medical information systems as possible, SCI Solutions had supported these remote users via manual faxing. However, this was a time-consuming process that required healthcare providers to specifically request system output that was then manually faxed.

“We offer a Web-based portal.” Said Wayne Tang, Senior Database Administrator for SCI Solutions, “but that’s of no use to doctors without computers. We needed a system that would automatically send scheduling information to offline doctors via fax.”

The Solution
SCI Solutions needed a fax server solution that would interoperate with their existing scheduling systems, and they selected Biscom’s FAXCOM Suite for Windows solution. With a full range of fax capabilities, the FAXCOM solution enables SCI users to send and receive faxes from their desktops. The FAXCOM solution also provides a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that are used to fax-enable scheduling applications.

Determining what information needs to be sent to whom and when is a key function of SCI Solutions proprietary software. What they needed was a fax application that could be triggered automatically by their systems.

By developing a custom application using the COM API, SCI Solutions implemented a solution that automatically sends faxes to physicians based upon pre-set criteria. “The key issue for us was having the APIs to work with,” said Mr. Tang. “Creating a fax system that could work with our existing scheduling software was absolutely essential.”
For example, the day before an appointment, a patient’s medical and billing information are automatically faxed to the doctor’s office. In another example, a physician scheduling an MRI online will trigger a fax to the imaging center with the patient’s billing information.

SCI Solutions also supports FAXCOM as their integrated fax solution for their premise (non-hosted) customers. “If they don’t want to use our online services, we require our customers to implement FAXCOM – it’s the only fax solution that is fully integrated with our solution,” said Mr. Tang.

The Results
SCI Solutions is not only saving time and money with the FAXCOM solution, but is also providing an easier and more efficient fax solution for its customers. Mr. Tang is already planning to expand the system to keep pace with overall growth. “The Biscom solution is simply more reliable,” said Mr. Tang. “Installation was straight-forward, using it is simple, and the solution just works – install and forget. Our customers are happy and so are we.”