# How a multi-site clinic took the front desk out of fax intake

> The front desk stopped touching inbound faxes entirely, and moved that time to calling patients. Over the same period the clinic went from 25 visits a day to 68 on average, peaking at 75. The automation was a component of that growth, not the primary driver — but the staff hours it freed went straight into the work that grows a clinic.

[Human view](https://joeperes.com/work/fax-intake)
Industry: Multi-site healthcare clinic

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## The problem

Every inbound fax was handled by hand. Front-desk staff opened each one, worked out what it was, filed it into the right folder, then emailed it on to whoever needed it. It was constant, it was interrupt-driven, and it was the first thing to fall behind on a busy day.

## What was built

An automated intake path: documents are classified on arrival, filed to the correct destination, and routed to the person who actually needs them — without a person in the middle.

## Results

- **68** — Average daily patient visits, up from 25
  Measured over the same period. A component of the growth, not the primary driver.
- **0** — Inbound faxes handled by the front desk
  The intake path runs without a person in the middle.
- **75** — Peak daily visits
  Measured over the same period as the 68 average.

## How it was done

**Assess.** The assessment started with the intake process as it actually ran — every fax opened by hand, identified, filed, forwarded. The cost was not any single fax. It was that the work was interrupt-driven and always first to slip.

**Implement.** Documents are classified the moment they arrive, filed to the right destination, and routed to the person who needs them. No human in the middle of the path.

**Measure.** The measure that mattered was not throughput. It was whether the front desk had stopped touching faxes at all — and what the reclaimed hours went into.

## Challenge

Every inbound fax was handled by hand. Front-desk staff opened each one, worked out what it was, filed it into the right folder, then emailed it on to whoever needed it.

The problem was never any individual fax — each one took a couple of minutes. The problem was that the work was constant and interrupt-driven. It arrived without warning, it could not be batched, and it competed with the patient standing at the desk. On a busy day it was the first thing to fall behind, and it fell behind precisely when the clinic could least afford it.

## Solution

The fix was an automated intake path. Documents are classified on arrival — the system works out what each one is rather than a person doing it — then filed to the correct destination and routed to whoever actually needs to see it.

The design goal was to remove the person from the middle of the path entirely, not to make their part of it faster. A faster manual step is still an interruption.

## Impact

The front desk stopped touching inbound faxes entirely, and moved that time to calling patients.

Over the same period the clinic went from 25 visits a day to 68 on average, peaking at 75. The automation was a component of that growth, not the primary driver — but the staff hours it freed went straight into the work that grows a clinic.