Home Forums Discussions Problems faxing out of AC to referring physicans

Hi, can someone suggest an easy method to do this via an easyfax type program. I tried upbox onebox combo but it is too buggy and not very intuitive.

any suggestions would be appreciated.

I meant to say to "fax out of AC" without updox.

Brother has a fax program called PC-fax that prints to the Brother fax printer on the network. I haven't begun using it yet, but it seems to work.
Microsoft has a (rather poor) fax wizard you can turn on in the printers and faxes settings. This should allow you to send a fax directly using your modem and choosing the fax from the printer list. If you share the fax printer you should be able to print from any computer at your office.

I'm not sure if this will help directly, but it may help you find what you need.

I use the Brother software, Paperport, to do all my faxing. I have been very happy with it. The Paperport "printer" is offered as a printer option for any program including AC. Select it and your document is ready for faxing out. It also has very useful "marking up" functions. All of my incoming faxes come into the Paperport desktop and then are managed from there. Scripts are refilled and faxed back, labs, xrays, consultant letters, etc. are reviewed, marked up as needed and then either imported into AC or forwarded to staff to address and then import. Unlike Updox however, it does not mesh directly with AC and automatically pull up your patient list. Nor does it handle emails but, for the price (free with my Brother MFC), I think it's great. You can PM me if you would like any other specifics such as how I have set up my Paperport folders.

Leslie

If you have a fax modem set up, and it is working right (which they often don't), you can fax out of windows as one of the printing options. It does work OK, but sometimes windows fax is buggy.

Wendell

Hi oncdoc and welcome to AC,

As everyone is saying Leslie, et. al, you can fax directly from your desktop if you have the proper software and print drivers. The best is to purchase a fax machine that can be networked and has Fax to PC and PC to fax capabilities such as the ones Benjamin and Leslie are referring to.

I used to use the Muratec, but the French let me down with its quality so I finally went with the Xerox 4150. It's a bit pricey as Leslie let me know. I became frustrated with the GUI of its PC to Fax software (which is why Toshiba was not an option -- I definitely need to find out what their engineers were drinking when they designed their GUI; it must be very good stuff). So, I purchased Captaris' fax server (I am obsessed with PC to fax). With the Captaris/Castelle you don't even need a fax machine. It's basically a self-contained fax server. It's interface and PC software is a bit over the top.

But, the key words there are fax server. Any networked fax machine such as the Brothers, etc. basically contain a fax server which makes it rather simple to fax in and out.

HTH. My guess is it is more confusing than anything.

we have a sharp mx350 which is huge and very expensive. But the folks at IT tell me I have to fax out via efax or the like. I am considering joining pfax (unlimited incoming faxes for 4 dollars a month) and metrofax for outgoing. Since it is all web based I think (more like hope) it should work out. Metrofax has a neat little outlook applet. Very nice.

btw,

what a great site and community here. very nice folks here. thanks all.

Check out Snappy Fax 4.0; it was recommended over at emrupdate by Jason Murdoch and wow! It rocks, both in answering faxes and in sending them off. You can mark up your faxes with primitive but workable markup tools. It can save faxes as both a TIFF and a PDF.

It's free to use for 30 days (unrestricted). Eventual cost is only $29 for 1 license... http://www.snappysoftware.com/ or http://www.fileheap.com/download-snappy-fax-7288.html.

Geeze....check out the Brother 8600DN machine, with fax to pc. It is a MFC with a flatbed scanner and a copier also. Maybe you can justify just having another scanner/copier on hand "in case" and then sneak in the fax to pc and fax from pc features in on your apparently out of touch IT people.

Leslie

You know that scanner of yours has an optional add-on according to this pdf: http://solar.sharpusa.com/files/cop_dow_MXM350_450_bro.pdf
It might be less useful than the Brother since the add-on might cost more than a Brother MFC, certainly seems to be a great scanner though.

Yep, according to the $375 price here it probably isn't worth it.
http://www.jtfbus.com/JTF/item.cfm?catID=14&ID=6207

Benjamin is right. I looked it up, and it talked about the Super G3 Fax kit. That would be the AR-FX12 which is > $900. I am not sure if the Sharp MX-FWX1 Internet Fax Kit would all PC to Fax. I didn't look into that closely.

My recommendation would be to call Sharp and ask what fax kit you would need to add to the MX-M350 (I believe it is the M350 -- there is an M3501 as well, but I think you are referring to the MX-M350) to allow it to have Fax to desktop and Desktop to Fax.

I would, however, add that if you could get that capability for $375, it would be well worth it. First, network faxing via an actual fax modem or fax board is still better than Internet faxing. Some MFP or network fax machines will Internet fax directly from the machine, i.e. the machine is capable of sending the fax digitally over the Internet. It isn't very useful, because the recipient must have a fax machine which is Internet ready, and very few do plus you would have to call and check so you can see it wouldn't be very practical. Give it a few more years.

But, I believe when you talk about Internet fax capability (the one you are hoping for), you are talking about using a subscription service where the document has to be sent to that service's server where it is converted to a fax image and then sent to the user's fax machine. While it works fairly well, it is a step that can take up valuable time and isn't generally as reliable.

So, if you can call Sharp and possibly add an optional utility that allows you to not only fax from any desktop but to monitor your faxes better, that would be best.

The problem with Internet faxing through a service is that even though $4.00 a month for unlimited faxes is very good, usually your subscription payment for outgoing faxes covers so many pages and then you have to page by the page. Which is not only costly, but it then makes everyone edgy as they realize that every faxed sent out may be costing money. Using your Sharp machine allows you to receive and send unlimited faxes.

Hope this helps. Sorry it was so long. Ben's was probably better as it was short and sweet and to the point.

Bottom line, don't make any quick decisions and ask Sharp what they can do to help you with a viable solution.

wow great suggestions. I will investigate and let you know what I do. thanks guys.

Steve,

I am not sure if you have your Private Message notification set to notify you by email. Just to let you know that I sent a PM to you that you may find helpful.

I bought at brother 7840N at the recommendation of the board and love it. When an 8660 was on sale at sharp (refurb) I snapped it up but have had nothing but problems. It stopped receiving faxes, they had to reset the machine, the auto document feeder would not work, they could not correct the problem, they sent a new (refurb) machine. The new machine went through the same set of problems. Stopped sending faxes to the computer, they claimed it was a computer problem (but it worked before). Each time was about 45 min to 1.5 hours on the phone. New machine has been reset and guess what, auto document feeder does not work.

Love the 7840N Hate the 8660DN

I have always been impressed with the Brothers even though I have NEVER owned one. Muratec MFP was good (Adam uses it still); faxed great in and out, but would make a lot of paper airplanes. Toshiba was EXPENSE but incredible but had HORRIBLE PC to Fax interface probably designed in less times than it takes to handle a conjunctivits visit (my favorite btw). The Xerox has been awesome. Seems to lose it's network connection some and reboots of the Xerox are a little more than I would like.

As above, given my love of networking faxing, I went with the Captaris/Castelle independed fax server. Great product. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE support. Techs are super IF you can set up a time and get them off the California beaches.

I think I would like to give up Pediatrics (even though primary care medidicine is going in such a postive direction -- right Leslie and Wendell) and go around the country setting up SBS networks and fax servers. With my connection with Microsoft, I could probably get very low SBS server prices.

But, then I keep hearing that we will be unable to fax scripts in 2009 and will be FORCED to go to ePrescribine. That is when I will truly hate medicine. If Jon can't get the ePrescibing to auto populate AC, then I would ask the government to supply me with a free employee to copy them into AC.

Glad you like the brother. I am one of those who recommending them. But, at least Leslie actually tried one out.

We use the Brother 7820 N and it is reliable, good software, and relatively cheap to operate. It costs $25.00 for toner and drum about $45.00 for 2500 copies and 12000 for drum duty. We use the fax to PC to sort out the things you don't want to paper.