5 signs your healthcare fax solution needs an upgrade

Fax remains an essential part of healthcare communications, owing to its security, traceability and HIPAA-compliance. Seven in U.S. 10 hospitals still rely on fax to exchange health information, according to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Healthcare Information Technology.  

Fax has evolved dramatically, from outdated analog systems with paper and physical machines to modern cloud-based solutions. Despite all the technological advancements and adoption of electronic healthcare records, many healthcare organizations are still relying on aging fax systems with complex on-premises infrastructure which leads to inefficiencies, security risks and limited interoperability. Here are five signs that your organization’s fax solution needs modernization: 

1. High failure rates 

Does your fax system performance leave something to be desired? High fax failure rates in healthcare can delay the transmission of critical information like referrals, lab results, and treatment plans, leading to postponed diagnoses, disrupted care coordination, and ultimately poorer patient outcomes. At the same time, these failures create costly inefficiencies for providers, as staff must spend valuable time troubleshooting, resending, and verifying faxes, which increases labor costs and reduces productivity. Delays can also impact billing cycles, slow down reimbursements, and damage patient satisfaction hurting both clinical performance and the organization’s financial health.

2. Security vulnerabilities, compliance risks  

Aging fax systems pose significant security and compliance risks because they rely heavily on manual processes, making them prone to human errors like misdirected faxes and unattended documents, key contributors to many data breaches. These systems typically lack modern safeguards such as encryption, access controls, and audit trails, leaving sensitive patient data vulnerable to interception or unauthorized access. As a result, any breach intentional or accidental can lead to serious regulatory consequences and financial losses, contributing to the rising average cost of data breaches in healthcare. Research shows that over 85% of all data breaches involved a human element. The average cost of a data breach jumped to $4.88 million in 2024, according to analysis of data compiled by the Ponemon Institute. That’s up 10% from the year prior. 

3. Hidden costs of legacy systems  

Healthcare organizations often drain valuable IT resources maintaining aging, on-premises fax and telephony systems, or rely on third-party providers with unreliable networks. These outdated technologies not only demand constant upkeep but also cause frequent transmission errors and communication breakdowns. As a result, front-line staff are burdened with correcting issues instead of focusing on patient care, leading to operational inefficiencies, delayed treatment, and ultimately a diminished patient experience.

4. Integration challenges with modern EHR systems  

Interoperability continues to be a challenge in U.S. healthcare settings with hundreds of different electronic health record (EHR) systems in use at different hospitals and clinics, often tailored to specific needs. With nearly 90% of U.S. based physicians using an EHR, ensuring related systems are integrated is essential. Integrating digital fax systems with modern EHRs ensures seamless and timely care coordination.  

5. Information bottlenecks and the impact on clinical staff and patient experience  

Legacy fax systems often create delays as faxes wait in queues for manual processing. Removing these bottlenecks with integrated AI enabled capture solutions can help speed workflows while reducing processing delays and human error.  

Digital fax success stories in healthcare 

Fax reliability and care coordination are directly connected. The University of Kansas Health System was dealing with a rise in fax transmission errors while local telcos reduced support for analog fax solutions. Employees spent significant amounts of time resending faxes and 90% of IT time was spent troubleshooting fax issues. By working with OpenText, they were able to implement a hybrid, HIPAA compliant digital fax solution that boosted fax transmission success to nearly 100%.  

The Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas reduced the risk of delays to front-line patient services by improving the availability of fax services. The healthcare provider also avoided rising costs for fax lines as telcos phase out analog services. They boosted clinical efficiency by 20% while unlocking $200,000 in annual cost savings with a HIPAA-compliant fax solution from OpenText. 

Building a business case for digital fax 

1. Start with why: connect to patient care 

When building your case, anchor the conversation in patient outcomes and clinician efficiency. Analog fax systems often lead to delays, missed referrals, and security gaps—none of which are acceptable in a patient-centered environment. 

Tip: Use real stories. Did a critical patient referral get delayed because a fax line was busy? Share that. It brings urgency to the conversation. 

2. Quantify the hidden costs of analog fax 

It’s easy to overlook how expensive traditional faxing really is. Tally up the costs of: 

• Analog phone lines – monthly charges for each line used exclusively for faxing. 
• Third-party telephony services – fees paid to external vendors that may lack reliability or SLAs. 
• Hardware maintenance – costs for servicing or replacing fax machines, plus depreciation over time. 
• Consumables – paper, toner, and fax machine maintenance. 
• Staff labor costs – time spent manually sending, receiving, filing, and routing faxes. 
• Error correction and rework – time and resources spent on resolving failed transmissions or mis-faxes.
• Transmission failures and downtime – impact of fax delays on clinical workflows, patient care, and revenue cycles.
• Storage and archiving costs – physical space or systems needed to store paper records or scanned documents.
• Opportunity costs – value of time and resources that could be re-directed to higher value patient care or innovation if fax related burdens were reduced.

Tip: Benchmark your current costs against digital fax solutions.  

3. Highlight the compliance and security risks 

Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries—and analog faxing creates gaps: 

• No audit trails for those who sent or received a fax 
• Risk of PHI left in trays or misdialed numbers 
• Lack of access controls 

Digital fax offers encryption, audit logs, and user-level access management that help you stay on the right side of HIPAA, HITECH, and other regulations. 

Tip: Talk to your compliance team early. Their support can strengthen your case dramatically. 

4. Align with strategic goals 

Most healthcare organizations have digital transformation initiatives underway. Show how digital fax aligns with broader goals: 

• Supporting remote and hybrid work 
• Reducing paper-based processes 
• Improving interoperability with EHRs and other systems 

Tip: Reframe digital fax as an enabler of strategic priorities, not just a utility replacement. 

5. Propose a phased approach 

Large IT projects can feel daunting. Ease leadership concerns by recommending a phased rollout: 

• Start with a pilot in a department with high fax volume (e.g., referrals, radiology, or medical records) 
• Measure success, then expand 

Tip: Choose a modern, cloud-native fax solution that eliminates the need for legacy infrastructure and supports rapid scalability across departments without the complexity of maintaining analog systems.

6. Estimate ROI and payback period 

Executives want numbers. Estimate how long it will take to recoup the investment based on reduced costs and improved productivity. Most healthcare organizations see ROI within 6–12 months. 

Tip: Include both hard savings (e.g., eliminated phone lines) and soft savings (e.g., time saved per fax, reduced risk of fines). 

Digital transformation in healthcare isn’t just about big-ticket technologies. Sometimes, the biggest gains come from modernizing the tools we rely on every day. Fax is still essential—but it doesn’t have to be analog or on-premises. Build your case thoughtfully, and you’ll not only win leadership support—you’ll give your teams a faster, safer, and smarter way to connect with HIPAA-compliant fax.