Shields Health Care Chooses Biscom

Shields Health Care Group is the largest and most technically advanced network of medical imaging, diagnostic, and treatment facilities in New England. To meet Shields MRI’s rapid growth, its fax infrastructure needed to scale as well.

Challenges

“As our fax volumes began to rise, we noticed that our present system had a number of weaknesses and we were starting to lose faxes,” explains Management Engineer Suzanne Lillie. “It was not scalable to meet our demands.”

In the healthcare industry, time is critical for patient care, and lost faxes creates huge problems. Tracking down missing faxes impacted customer satisfaction, hurt staff productivity, and presented security concerns.

With over 50 Call Center FTEs across the network and over 3,500 faxes received per week, Shields needed a system that was both scalable and able to route faxes using a set of rules and assigned roles. The company realized the extent of its missed opportunities after learning about Biscom’s Workflow solution.

The Solution

Shields replaced its current fax solution with Biscom’s enterprise fax and document management tools. The product solution recommended by Biscom included a FAXCOM Server, Faxcom Suite with Advanced Fax Routing, Docflow, Workflow Enterprise, and Job Tracking Reporter modules.

The FAXCOM Server application is the central component of Biscom’s product line. It supports Shields’ document delivery via fax, email, and the Internet, handling document flow in and out of the organization.

Advanced Fax Routing provides a rules engine for routing documents to users, applications, and network applications based on information captured via ANI (Automatic Number Identification), OCR (Optical Character Recognition), barcodes, and other meta information, and applies custom business rules to support complex workflows.

Implementation and Support

Shields relies on Biscom’s dedicated support and development team to enhance its fax system. As business lines and workflow roles are added, Biscom works closely with the staff to ensure seamless implementation.

“The Biscom team is hands-on and is always there to walk us through the process,” says Lillie. “They always take the extra time to make sure our product needs are met. From Sales to development to implementation and support, the Biscom team has been exceptional. Biscom offers quality products that support our goal of quality service.”

Results

After a cost-effective implementation, Biscom’s fax solutions now complement Shields’ expanding needs.

“We no longer have problems with system flow or performance,” says Lillie. “We are able to route by any ANI and OCR. Inbound orders received via fax or via online ordering are indexed and the application creates the workflow according to programmed business rules.”

The most impressive part of the solution, according to Lillie, is the workflow piece. Controlled by assigned roles, it is a powerful business tool. “The previous solution was open and you either had access or you didn’t,” she explains. “We just developed four new roles to meet specific challenges, and we are leveraging and building upon this advantage.”

Shields has yet to experience miss-indexed fax since implementing Biscom’s workflow solution. Staff members who process faxes no longer waste time on document flow issues.

Additionally, “Staff members love the user interface and manager review queries,” says Lillie. “It is so organized and easy to use. It makes their jobs much easier.” With increased employee productivity, advanced document security, and improved customer service, Shields can trust that its growth will not be hindered by any fax limitations.