Case Study: Martin's Point Healthcare

July 2004

Health Care Provider Faces Unique Challenge

Martin's Point Health Care (MPHC) needed an innovative way to reduce the time and costs involved with filing prescriptions for its patients. The not-for-profit organization has four clinics, 38 providers and 37,000 patients throughout Main and New Hampshire. It offers a wide range of primary health care services, including everything from family practice and pediatrics to routine radiology and pharmacy. MPHC also has a Department of Defense contract to provide insurance for active duty dependents and retirees within the region.

Each month, MPHC processes 2,600 prescription requests. All of them were being faxed manually to pharmacies. Initially, the organization considered purchasing a fax server and having a full-time employee manage the equipment and transmissions. But since MPHC wasn't sure how much the equipment would actually be used, it decided against this option - which would have cost about $30,000 initially for the equipment and employee time.

InterFAX Provides A Customized Solution

MPHC ultimately decided Internet faxing was the ideal solution because of its cost-effectiveness. Plus, it allowed them to "test the waters" without having to invest in new equipment or an additional employee. MPHC researched a number of service providers, but chose InterFAX because of "its extraordinary customer service and expertise". InterFAX specializes in enabling faxing from business applications, including prescription faxing, massive invoicing and online take-away orders. The international company serves several thousand customers who send and receive 20 million pages a year.

MPHC found the staff at InterFAX easy to work with and quick to respond. The company's programmers worked directly with the developers at MPHC to intergrate Internet faxing into the organization's home-grown system.

More importantly, InterFAX was willing to provide custom programming to meet MPHC's unique needs. The company modified its software with a feature that allows faxes to be automatically deleted after they are sent. This enables MPHC to enjoy the convenience of Internet faxing, yet safeguard patients' prescription information - and privacy.

Fax Transmissions Are Seamless And Secure

Before InterFAX came along, Martin Point had to take written prescriptions and manually fax them to each patient's pharmacy. Now when patients call to request refills, a representative places the "order" in the computer system. The prescription is transmitted to the doctor, who verifies the request and sends an electronic signature of approval to InterFAX. Then, InterFAX's system securely transmits the prescription to the appropriate pharmacy's fax machine via the Internet. The prescription is encrypted and automatically destroyed by InterFAX after faxing for the security of patients. InterFAX's services are completely transparent to users because they're seamlessly integrated into Martin Point's software system.

Processing Time Cut By 75%, Savings Projected At $70,000 A Year

The customized solution InterFAX provided has drastically improved prescription processing at MPHC. It eliminated the need for someone to take written prescriptions and manually fax them to pharmacies. Plus it offers built-in security features. If a fax delivery fails, MPHC is automatically alerted, so it can follow up.

Because of Internet faxing, MPHC is able to process the same number of prescription in 75 percent less time. That's well above its initial goal to reduce processing time by 50 percent. And the best part is the ROI. MPHC will spend only $3,200 a year using Internet faxing. However, the service will save the non-profit organization $70,000 annually.

Internet faxing is obviously a huge success for MPHC. Next, the organization is considering incorporating InterFAX's in-bound faxing services for even greater benefits.

"InterFAX was willing to do custom programming for our unique need. Their technical staff was available to assist our technical staff in integrating the service into our software. It was easy."