5 healthcare fax workflows ready for AI-assisted automation

Healthcare organizations have invested heavily in digital transformation, yet many of the processes supporting patient care still rely on documents moving through shared inboxes, manual review, and repetitive data entry. 

Whether it’s a referral, prior authorization, prescription refill, imaging order, or release of information (ROI) request, every document triggers a series of administrative tasks. 

When those workflows remain manual, administrative teams spend valuable time sorting documents, entering data, routing requests, and tracking status before clinical work can even begin. 

AI-assisted document processing helps automate many of these repetitive tasks while keeping clinicians in control of medical decisions. Here are five healthcare workflows that show how AI turns traditional faxing into actionable workflows. 

1. Patient referrals: Reduce intake delays before care begins 

For many health systems, every referral begins with a document arriving from an outside provider. Before anyone schedules an appointment, staff often need to: 

• Review the referral 
• Identify the patient 
• Route it to the appropriate department 
• Enter information into the EHR 
• Request any missing documentation 

This manual intake process creates delays long before a clinician becomes involved. 

AI can help by: 

• Classifying incoming referral documents automatically 
• Summarizing referral information for faster review 
• Extracting patient demographics and referral details 
• Routing referrals to the correct specialty or queue 
• Matching patients and filing information into the EHR 

Automating these administrative tasks helps care teams begin coordinating patient care sooner while reducing manual data entry. With automated faxing, what traditionally requires 14 manual steps can be reduced to an automated intake process completed in under 30 seconds, while human review remains for cases requiring clinical judgment. 

2. Prior authorizations: Accelerate one of healthcare’s most document-intensive processes 

Prior authorization remains one of healthcare’s most document-intensive workflows. Requests often require staff to review payer requirements, validate supporting documentation, and communicate with providers before treatment can move forward. 

When information is incomplete or arrives through multiple channels, processing slows even further. 

AI-assisted document automation can: 

• Categorize authorization requests as they arrive 
• Extract payer and patient information 
• Summarize supporting clinical documentation 
• Route requests to the appropriate reviewer 
• Populate downstream systems without manual re-keying 

By reducing administrative work before clinical review, healthcare organizations can improve turnaround times while allowing reviewers to focus on authorization decisions instead of document preparation. 

3. Prescription refills: Keep patients moving without unnecessary administrative work 

Prescription refill requests may seem straightforward, but every request often triggers around 13 manual tasks before a provider reviews it. Staff typically verify patient information, review medication details, enter data into the EHR, and route requests to the appropriate prescriber. 

AI can automate much of the intake process by: 

• Identifying refill requests immediately 
• Extracting medication and pharmacy information 
• Generating concise summaries for providers 
• Matching patient records 
• Updating EHR workflows without manual transcription 

Providers still make prescribing decisions, but they spend less time navigating paperwork and more time reviewing clinically relevant information. Fax automation can reduce several minutes of administrative work to under 30 seconds. 

4. Radiology and imaging orders: Move patients from order to scheduling faster 

Imaging orders frequently arrive alongside referrals, lab reports, and other clinical documents, requiring staff to separate, review, and manually process each request before scheduling can begin. 

Incomplete documentation or missing insurance information often creates additional delays. 

AI-assisted processing helps by: 

• Automatically recognizing imaging orders 
• Extracting modality, authorization, and patient information 
• Routing orders to the correct scheduling team 
• Supporting downstream RIS and EHR workflows 
• Reducing manual transcription errors 

With administrative tasks automated, radiology teams can move qualified orders through scheduling faster while focusing attention on exceptions requiring human review. AI-assisted fax can automate 10 of 13 manual tasks involved in intake. 

5. Release of information: Improve efficiency while supporting compliance 

Release of information requests require careful handling. Staff must verify authorization, confirm the scope of the request, retrieve records, prepare documents for release, and maintain an audit trail throughout the process. 

Many of these activities are administrative but remain essential for regulatory compliance. 

AI can streamline ROI workflows by: 

• Classifying incoming requests 
• Validating authorization information 
• Extracting requester and patient details 
• Routing requests to the appropriate team 
• Preparing structured information for review 

Human oversight remains critical for reviewing authorization and determining what information can be released, while AI reduces the repetitive administrative work surrounding the request. 

AI-assisted automation can reduce much of the manual work that happens before an ROI request reaches human review, including sorting, validating key details, routing, and preparing information for the next step. 

What these healthcare workflows have in common 

Although these processes support different parts of healthcare operations, they share the same administrative challenges: 

• High volumes of document intake 
• Manual classification and routing 
• Repetitive data entry 
• Multiple handoffs between teams 
• Delays before clinical work begins 

AI-assisted document processing addresses these common bottlenecks by automating repetitive work while preserving human oversight for clinical decisions, compliance reviews, and patient care. 

Start where administrative work is highest 

Healthcare organizations don’t need to automate every workflow at once. Many begin with the document-heavy processes that consume the most staff time and introduce the greatest operational friction. 

By focusing on referrals, prior authorizations, prescription refills, imaging orders, or release of information requests, organizations can reduce manual effort, accelerate document processing, and create a stronger foundation for broader AI adoption across healthcare operations. 

Learn how AI-assisted fax automation transforms inbound healthcare documents into structured, actionable workflows with OpenText™ Fax Aviator.