Many industries, from health care to education and shipping, rely on fax machines and related paperwork to ensure everything runs smoothly and by the book. To realize improvements, many firms in these sectors have started shifting away from standard faxing to instead embracing newer technologies like cloud-based faxing and sending fax via email. One area in particular that would stand to benefit from such a transition is fire department communication.
Contrary to public perception, downtime for a typical firefighter involves a lot more than caring for Dalmatians, cooking chili, and posing for calendars. In addition to the very dangerous and beneficial work of actually fighting fires, fire department employees also conduct building inspections and assist emergency medical personnel. This means that physical forms and papers are just as critical sometimes as hoses and big red trucks in the day-to-day endeavors of firefighters worldwide.
“Many firefighters still use physical fax machines, leading to inevitable issues.”
Many departments still rely on physical fax machines to deal with all of their paperwork, leading to inevitable issues. Instead of using physical equipment to handle documentation, firefighters should instead adopt fax-to-email machines to realize the following key benefits:
1) Receive alerts faster
Some departments, like the Detroit Fire Department, still use fax machines to receive critical alerts at the station. Since an incoming fax is not nearly as identifiable as say a ding from a tablet or a buzz from a smartphone in a pocket, firefighters in the Motor City have created contraptions using soda cans, coins, and other household items to make sure they know when a fax is incoming, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“It sounds unbelievable, but it’s truly what the guys have been doing and dealing with for a long, long time,” said Detroit Deputy Fire Commissioner John Berlin, according to the Free Press.
Whether due to compliance concerns (some laws include language specifying that a certain type of technology is used) or for cost-cutting reasons, the situation faced by the Detroit Fire Department is not all that unique. Many firehouses across the nation continue to rely on outdated endpoints to get their jobs done and be aware of what’s happening in the community, leading to numerous issues.
Luckily, these issues can be easily resolved by adopting a top-of-the-line fax-to-email solution. By ditching the machines of yore in favor of a more streamlined cloud-based fax-to-email machine option, firefighters can receive alerts directly on their smartphones, tablets, or other personal computing devices. This way, firefighters can more instantaneously know when an alert has been dispatched and mobilize to address the situation.
2) More easily complete and file paperwork
As the job title suggests, a firefighter’s core job is to battle blazes. But as we have noted earlier, this is far from the only task firefighters engage in during a typical day or week. As even the International Association for Fire Fighters has noted, a typical firefighter should definitely expect to “file reports and paperwork” while on the job. Additionally, in an interview with JobShadow.com, an anonymous firefighter employed in the southeastern U.S. noted that dealing with and filing paperwork is one of the many tasks people in his profession must complete during their limited downtime.
When firefighters have fax to email, their work lives improve.Although paperwork is – and will always be – a chore no one ever really wants to do, it can be made much simpler with new technology. Instead of having to use physical fax machines to send and transmit documentation, firefighters can utilize a fax to email solution to digitally deal with paperwork. Not only can this significantly streamline the paperwork process for firefighters everywhere, but it also allows them to store and file documents electronically for greater ease and accuracy.
3) Keep better building inspection records
Prevention is always the best medicine, and that is definitely true for firefighters. Anyone in the profession would rather promote fire safety than risk life and limb to save property and life in the event of a blaze. This is why many firefighters are tasked with conducting building inspections on a regular basis.
“Professional firefighters are also trained to inspect buildings for hazardous conditions that may result in a fire,” the IAFF noted. “Armed with the knowledge of fire hazards and local fire and building codes, these professionals check for appropriate exit routes, safe storage and use of flammable and combustible materials, overcrowding of public places, and the improper use of equipment or materials in all kinds of buildings.”
Of course, as is the case with any inspection process, ample paperwork is needed to track what work has been done and where each building stands as far as area fire codes are concerned. To save time and reduce headaches, firefighters should use a fax-to-email solution to file their inspection paperwork. That way, the note-taking process remains flexible, and all records are digitally stored in the most accurate fashion possible. And considering that a high-quality cloud-based fax offering is highly secure, firefighters can rest assured knowing that their notes and documentation are safely kept away from all prying eyes.
4) Compliance
In many communities across the globe, firefighters are called to the scene to provide assistance during medical emergencies involving a wide array of scenarios, from just helping ambulance crews lift and carry a patient to even providing emergency care when necessary. As a result, many departments often require firefighters to have certain medical training and expertise just to be considered for the role.
“We go to medical calls, any time ambulances are called out we go to it,” the anonymous firefighter told JobShadow. “We do everything from heart attacks to small injuries to car wrecks. Anything an ambulance would be called for we help out with.” He added, “Everybody here is an emergency medical technician so we go with ambulances on those calls.”
“Firefighters can meet compliance guidelines by using fax to email.“
Of course, as we have noted in previous posts, health care in the U.S. is governed by many laws such as HIPAA that dictate the use of certain data retention and transmission methods, including faxing. This means that whenever a firefighter files or completes paperwork related to a medical call, he or she must keep related compliance concerns in mind. By adopting a fax to email machine, however, firefighters gain the ease of a cloud-based solution and the peace of mind that comes from having a secure mode of fire department communication built with healthcare compliance needs in mind.
5) File union grievances and related files
Many firefighters belong to a union, as the IAFF alone represents over 300,000 firefighters across North America. In order to file a claim or submit a query, many unions require the submission of physical documentation. Since fax is by far the quickest and safest way to send paperwork, it’s the go-to mechanism for firefighters to be in touch with their union representatives on a variety of matters. This is perhaps why firefighters in New York recently fought for and won the right to send union-related faxes at work.
New York City firefighters can now send union-related faxes at work.When firefighters have a fax-to-email solution, sending documentation to the union is easier than ever before. Not only does it ensure that union files are sent and received safely, quickly, and accurately, but the ease of use of the cloud here allows firefighters to spend less time faxing and more time on their other critical tasks.
6) Save time and money
At the end of the day, this is really all any organization cares about. Does new technology improve everyone’s lives and the bottom line, or does it needlessly complicate processes and cause new headaches? With fax to email, the answer is obvious. By eliminating physical fax machines and all the problems they cause, firehouses can make the jobs of firefighters significantly easier while also reducing the amount of money that needs to be spent on fire department communications systems. For firefighters, sending fax via email may be just the thing to make their lives significantly easier and better.
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