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The Fax Backlog Problem
If you’ve ever walked into a busy healthcare intake office, you’ve seen it:
An endless list of unread inbound faxes. The “shared inbox” that’s a major bottleneck. The phone calls from frustrated providers asking, “Did you get my referral?”
In an industry where delays can impact care quality, fax backlogs are more than an administrative headache – they’re a patient care risk.
Why Backlogs Happen
Even with cloud fax, many intake teams still rely on manual workflows
- Unsorted queues: All inbound faxes land in one inbox
- Slow triage: Staff read every page to figure out what it is
- No prioritization: STAT orders get buried under routine correspondence
The longer a document sits unprocessed, the greater the chance for missed appointments, delayed treatments, or duplicated work.
Step 1: Prioritize What Matters Most
Not all faxes are created equal. The first step to reducing backlog is categorizing and prioritizing incoming documents.
Common Priority Levels:
- High: STAT labs, urgent referrals, hospital discharge summaries
- Medium: Routine labs, prescription updates
- Low: Administrative notices, general correspondence
By tagging documents based on urgency, you can ensure time-sensitive faxes move first.
Step 2: Use Automation to Triage Faster
With Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), you can automatically:
- Identify document type from keywords (“STAT,” “referral,” “lab result”)
- Extract key metadata like patient name, DOB, and birthday
- Route to the correct team or EHR folder
This eliminates the “read everything” bottleneck and keeps high-priority items from being buried.
Step 3: Standardize Workflows
Instead of relying on ad hoc processes, create consistent intake workflows:
- Define standard steps for each document type (e.g., referral → verify → route → archive)
- Use Documo’s routing rules and tags to ensure every fax follows the workflow
- Provide staff with clear guidelines so everyone handles faxes the same way
Standardized workflows reduce mistakes, speed processing, and prevent documents from getting lost in the shuffle.
Step 4: Assign Clear Ownership
Backlogs often happen when everyone assumes someone else is handling a fax. With Documo, you can reduce confusion by:
- Setting user permissions and roles in the portal so specific teams see the inboxes relevant to them.
- Routing faxes via API or webhooks to designated queues, shifts, or document types.
- Using visual indicators or tags (like urgent marks or document type labels) to show at a glance which team or queue should handle each fax.
By defining who is responsible for each queue or document type, your team can act quickly, prevent delays, and keep faxes moving efficiently through intake workflows.
Step 5: Monitor and Optimize
Backlogs don’t just appear – they evolve. Regularly review your intake workflows to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement:
- Track how long faxes sit in each queue
- Review which document types or teams experience delays
- Refine processes and use tools to make the workflow smoother for your team
By continuously monitoring and improving workflows, your team can prevent backlogs from building up and keep faxes moving efficiently.
FAQ
Q: How can I reduce fax backlogs?
A: Use Documo’s automation and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) to classify incoming faxes, extract key metadata, and route them to the right team or EHR folder. Combined with clear ownership and standardized workflows, this drastically cuts manual triage time.
Q: Can Documo flag urgent faxes?
A: Yes. By using the cover page “urgent” token, you can visually mark time-sensitive documents so they stand out in the portal and get routed appropriately.
Q: Will automation handle every fax automatically?
A: Documo’s automation can process most standard forms and documents with high accuracy. For cases where the system’s confidence score is low – such as handwritten notes or unusual formats – faxes are flagged for human review. This human-in-the-loop approach ensures that every document is handled correctly while still dramatically reducing the overall volume of manual processing.
Keep Workflows Moving
Clearing a backlog isn’t just about working faster – it’s about working smarter. By combining smart prioritization, automation, and visibility, healthcare intake teams can stay ahead of incoming documents and keep patient care moving.
