Canadian Healthcare Technology Logo
  • Issues
    • Current Print Issue
    • Print Archive
  • Advertise
    • Publishing Schedule
    • Circulation
    • Unit Sizes and Rates
    • Mechanical Requirements
    • Electronic Advertising
    • White Papers
  • Subscribe
    • Print Edition
    • e-Messenger
    • White Papers
  • Events
  • Vendors
  • About Us

Philips

AGFA 1400x150

Petal Health

Petal Health 1400x150

Administrative Solutions

VCH team shows how to reduce use of faxing

November 6, 2019


Heather BoersmaVANCOUVER – The oneVCH Projects Approach gives staff and physicians at all levels of Vancouver Coastal Health the ability to take the lead on a project from concept to completion, seeing the impact of their work firsthand. In a recent VCH blog, Heather Boersma (pictured), regional director, virtual health, commented on her experience in reducing the use of fax machines in a clinical setting using the Projects Approach.

Where did the idea for this project come from?

Faxing is used quite pervasively throughout health care and VCH, but it’s an antiquated form of communication. It’s not great for the environment, and it’s the largest cause of privacy breaches in the health authority. Many sectors have moved away from faxing, and the goal of this project was to look at one clinical area and see if we could replace faxing with other options we have available at VCH.

How was your project implemented?

We worked with VCH’s Priority Access team in a pilot project, because they do a significant amount of faxing. The team does all the long-term care referrals in Vancouver and the North Shore, and these referrals can come from acute care, home health, and community clinicians. They typically fax a significant amount of clinical information – sometimes documents as long as 50 pages!

We looked at the options we could use to reduce their fax use and mapped out what would work best for the group. Changing the faxing process impacts more than that team, it impacts everyone they use faxing as a communication tool with. E-Fax, an electronic faxing system that is sent from a fax machine and received as an email, was chosen for their referring sites as it would be the least disruptive. Email was chosen for the residential care sites that they send their referral packages to.

How did the change management process go?

It went really well! It took some time, because this group interacts with so many different stakeholders – numerous long-term care facilities, acute care sites, and home health offices. With this in mind, we chose to start with just one site to iron out the process before rolling the project out widely.
There was some initial nervousness about the change in the process, but in the end we were surprised to hear that some staff liked the new process better. By receiving an email instead of a fax of the referral, many people can review the same file at the same time, which is a huge benefit.

How did using the oneVCH Projects Approach pathway affect your project outcome?

It worked really well, especially because my project had a small scope. I’ve led large projects before, and so the process is intuitive for me. But I think both Wave and the oneVCH Projects Approach would be really helpful for people new to leading projects. It’s great to have a place to document everything, and make sure things are getting done.

How do you feel now that your project has been implemented?

It feels good that we can make a difference, both in the ability to share clinical information and environmentally. We calculated that 11 trees a year are being saved by eliminating the faxes from this one team, and that’s quite significant. It’s aligned with a number of things that we’re working on as an organization, that’s for sure.

The Priority Access team was great, and their willingness to be the first group to try something new was very impressive. We want to expand this project to other teams and are planning to work with Vancouver’s Home Health team next. It’s very exciting!

PreviousNext

CHT print

CHT print

e-Messenger

  • Montreal General unveils advanced surgical centre
  • Infoway announces vendor innovator winners
  • NYGH moves its EHR to Oracle cloud
  • Thunder Bay hospital uses SMS for patient surveys
  • Fundraiser aims to support former CEO of AHS
More from e-Messenger

Subscribe

Subscribe

Weekly blasts are sent each month, via e-mail, to over 7,000 senior managers and executives in hospitals, clinics and health regions. Learn More

Infoway

Infoway

Zebra

Zebra

Zebra

Zebra

Advertise with us

Advertise with us

Sectra KLAS

Sectra KLAS

Stratford Group

Stratford Group

Pure Storage

Pure Storage

Medirex

Medirex

NIHI

NIHI

CHT print

CHT print

Advertise with us

Advertise with us

Sectra KLAS

Sectra KLAS

Stratford Group

Stratford Group

Pure Storage

Pure Storage

Medirex

Medirex

NIHI

NIHI

Contact Us

Canadian Healthcare Technology
1118 Centre Street, Suite 204
Thornhill, Ontario, Canada L4J 7R9
Tel: 905-709-2330
Fax: 905-709-2258
info2@canhealth.com

  • Quick Links
    • Current Print Issue
    • Print Archive
    • Events
    • Vendors
    • About Us
  • Advertise
    • Publishing Schedule
    • Circulation
    • Unit Sizes and Rates
    • Mechanical Requirements
    • Electronic Advertising
    • White Papers
  • Subscribe
    • Print Edition
    • e-Messenger
    • White Papers
  • Resources
    • White Papers
    • Writers’ Guidelines
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Administrative Solutions
    • Clinical Solutions
    • Companies
    • Continuing Care
    • Diagnostics
    • Education & Training
  •  
    • Electronic Records
    • Government & Policy
    • Infrastructure
    • Innovation
    • People
    • Privacy and Security

© 2025 Canadian Healthcare Technology

The content of Canadian Healthcare Technology is subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. Send all requests for permission to Jerry Zeidenberg, Publisher.

Search Site

Error: Enter a search term

  • Issues
    • Current Print Issue
    • Print Archive
  • Advertise
    • Publishing Schedule
    • Circulation
    • Unit Sizes and Rates
    • Mechanical Requirements
    • Electronic Advertising
    • White Papers
  • Subscribe
    • Print Edition
    • e-Messenger
    • White Papers
  • Events
  • Vendors
  • About Us