Fax Inbox Guide- Managing inbound electronic faxes and uploading documents

Contents

• What is the Fax Inbox?
• Why is the Fax Inbox useful?
• Getting documents into Elation EHR using the Fax Inbox
• Managing the Fax Inbox
• Fax Inbox layout
• Restoring recently deleted faxes
• Actioning on documents
• Managing the filing queue
• Filing a document
• Uploading files
• Tips for using the Fax Inbox more effectively
• Managing fax usage
• Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Fax Inbox?

• all faxes that are received by your assigned electronic Elation fax number
• any documents you upload to your Fax Inbox
• any reports that are re-filed from a patient's chart in Elation

Why is the Fax Inbox useful?

Getting documents into Elation EHR using the Fax Inbox

Elation provides each customer with their own electronic Elation fax number when they begin using Elation EHR. You can reference your Elation fax number at any time by clicking on the "Fax Inbox" button at the top of your Practice Home. The 10 digit number is your practice's Elation fax number.



Automatic options

1. Setting up fax forwarding from your landline fax number to forward faxes to the electronic Elation fax number.
2. Updating your business details to advertise the Elation fax number as your new business fax number.

Manual options

Managing the Fax Inbox

Fax Inbox layout

• The first section, usually labeled Incoming Documents, houses all faxes received by your Elation fax number.
• The Unfiled Images section typically houses any reports that are re-filed from a patient's chart in Elation.

The top of each section of the Fax Inbox has shortcut buttons for you to:

• sort documents by newest first or oldest first; the default is oldest first
• see recently deleted faxes (and restore them if needed)
• upload documents from your computer to the Fax Inbox

Restoring recently deleted faxes

Click the "Recently Deleted" button at the top of the Fax Inbox to see all the recently (last 7 days) deleted faxes. Once you find the pages you want to restore, select all the pages and then click the "Restore" button at the top of the listing. Afterwards, click the "Recently Deleted" button again to return to the main Fax Inbox.


 

Actioning on documents 

• the first 5 images of the document. If there are additional pages, click on the "More" button to see the next 5 images within that listing. 
• a toolbar at the top listing different actions you can take on all documents in that listing. You can select all images, rotate selected images, add selected images to the filing queue or delete the selected images. Selected images will have a blue shadow and you will see a check mark in the corner of the image.

• options to take actions on individual images by clicking the "Add to Queue" or "Actions" button in the image.

Managing the filing queue

• click & drag pages up and down the queue to re-order them
• click "Remove From Queue" to remove specific pages from the filing queue
• click "File" to begin filing all the pages into a patient's chart
• click "Print" to print all the pages in the queue
• click "Empty Queue" to remove all pages from the filing queue - images will be placed back in the Fax Inbox
• click "Delete Images" to delete all the images in the queue

Pages added to the filing queue will be greyed out so that you know which pages you are actively working on. This also locks the images for other users in your practice to block them from taking action on the same document pages while you are working on them.

 

Filing a document

1. Type the patient's name and select the correct chart from the patient search dropdown.
2. Assign the document to a Reviewer (Provider Level User) in the practice. This provider will be responsible for reviewing and signing the report.
3. Specify the date of the document
4. Select the document type
   • User Tips:

     • Admin level users can adjust the report categories that appear in the document type list under "Settings" >> "Report & Visit Note Categories".
     • If you select Laboratory Report as the document type, you will see additional options for documenting lab values.
5. Add document tags as needed
6. Enter a title for the document. Use the title to distinguish different documents from each other within the patient's chart.
7. Check the "Mark Urgent" check box if you want this document to appear in the provider's 'Urgent' inbox.
8. Check the "File on behalf of Reviewer" box if want to sign off the report on behalf of the Provider. 
   • This feature comes in handy when the provider already reviewed the report and they only want to store a copy of the report in the patient's chart.
9. (Optional) Click the "Clear Form" button if you need to clear the details of the assignment form and start over.
10. Click "File into Chart" once you are ready to file the documents into the patient's chart as a report. The filed pages will immediately be removed from the Fax Inbox.

 

Uploading Files

You can upload documents from your computer to the Fax Inbox and then file those documents into the patient's chart. While you can upload files using any section of the Fax Inbox, we recommend using the Unfiled Images box to distinguish uploaded documents from faxed documents.

You can upload any type of file into Elation. If you upload a .PDF, .JPEG, .PNG, or .GIF file, you will be able to view the images of the document directly within the Fax Inbox and patient charts. Other file types (like .DOC, .CSV, .XLS, etc.) can also be uploaded and saved to a patient's chart but you will need to download the file to your computer whenever you need to view the contents. 

Using the "Upload File" button

1. Click on the  button within the Fax Inbox
2. Select the file(s) you want to upload & click "Open"
   • User Tip: You may select multiple files by holding down the "Control" key on your keyboard while you click on the files that you would like to upload.

The file(s) will then be processed in the Fax Inbox. You will see a yellow banner at the top of your account that reminds you to not delete or move the file(s) from where they currently are on your computer before the processing is complete. Once the processing is complete, you will see a 'completed' status next to the document title and a "Refresh" button at the bottom of the Fax Inbox. Click the "Refresh" button at the bottom of the Fax Inbox to refresh the Fax Inbox to see new documents.

Drag & drop files

1. Use your mouse or trackpad to click on a file from your computer, hold down the cursor and then drag the file into the Fax Inbox
2. A blue "Drop Here to Upload" graphic will appear
3. Let go of your cursor to drop the document into the dotted blue square

The file(s) will processed in the Fax Inbox. You will see a yellow banner at the top of your account that reminds you to not delete or move the file(s) from where they currently are on your computer before the processing is complete. Once the processing is complete, you will see a 'completed' status next to the document title and a "Refresh" button at the bottom of the Fax Inbox. Click the "Refresh" button at the bottom of the Fax Inbox to refresh the Fax Inbox to see new documents.

 
 

Tips for using the Fax Inbox more effectively

Collapse listings to see all documents more easily

You can click on the title of a document in the Fax Inbox to collapse that document and see a list of all the documents in the list. This will allow you to see all your documents at a glance and find/prioritize the most important documents first.
 

Zoom-in on images

Depending on your screen resolution, some of the images may be difficult to read. You can increase the size of a document page by double clicking on it. A larger image with higher resolution will appear on your screen.

• User Tip: If you want to increase the size of the image incrementally, you can zoom by hitting the "Ctrl" key and "+" key together (for Apple© users, hit the "Command" key and "+" key together). To resume to the normal image size, hit the "Ctrl" key + "0" (for Apple© users, hit the "Command" key and "0" key together).

 

Combining documents from different listings

If needed, you can combine pages of different document listings together into a single report. If a document came in via two separate fax transmissions or if a report was uploaded using multiple files, you can add different pages to a single filing queue and file all the pages together into one report.



 

Managing your fax usage

Fax Usage is the amount of inbound fax pages received plus the outbound fax pages sent by a practice for a given calendar month. Each Regular Provider Level User is allotted a combined total of 1,500 free inbound and outbound pages each calendar month. All other users types are not allotted any free pages. Elation charges you additional fees per page if you exceed your allotted free fax pages. 

You can monitor your fax usage in the "Settings" section of your account under "Fax Usage & Settings". Learn more about Fax Usage in the Fax Usage - Frequently Asked Questions article.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I need to keep the Fax Inbox open when uploading a document?

Another office said they sent a fax to me but I do not see it in my Fax Inbox. Did something go wrong?

1. fax number the sender is using to fax to you
2. approximate date and time the fax attempt was made
3. number of attempts made
4. any error messages flagged by the sender's fax number or fax machine

I accidentally deleted a fax from my Fax Inbox, is there a way for me to retrieve it?

Related Articles

• Fax Inbox Guide- Forwarding faxes to your Elation Fax Inbox
• Practice Home Introduction- A hub for managing your practice
• Lab Result Documentation Guide- In House or Faxed Results
• Document Tags for Visit Notes & Reports Guide
• Report Category Guide- Categorizing patient documents
• Fax Usage - Frequently Asked Questions