Faxing

Work the Faxes inbox

Incoming faxes from Hero Fax or SRFax enter Inbox → Faxes. Hero reads the pages, suggests the document category and patient, and routes the work using your practice’s fax rules. Verify the original document before acting on its summary.

1. Choose a folder. Open holds outstanding work, Review holds items needing review, Done holds completed items, and Junk holds faxes removed from the work queue.
2. Find a fax. Use Search faxes, Category, Urgent, or Critical. Fax service can limit the list to Hero Fax or SRFax, including older items from a previous service.
3. Check whose queue you are viewing. The default is your own faxes plus the faxes shared with your message pools (Faxes assigned to me or my pools); a pool’s chip narrows the list to that pool. Practice administrators and staff with document-triage access can switch Mine to All and filter by assignee or pool.
4. Open the fax. Opening it marks it read. Read the summary, category, patient match, and original pages. Use Assign to hand it to the right teammate or message pool (Search people or pools…; type p, a space and a pool name to search pools only), or Change category to correct the classification.

Faxes shared with a message pool

A fax can go to a message pool — Front Desk, Referrals, Nurses — instead of one person. Everyone in the pool who works faxes (providers, administrators, and staff with document-triage access) sees it in their own Faxes inbox, and any of them can work it.

• Chips say who has it: the pool’s name (Shared with Front Desk: everyone in it sees this fax) and, once someone has opened it, Opened by {name}.
• One shared read. The first person to open a pool fax marks it read for the whole pool, so it leaves everyone’s unread count at once.
• Take it makes a pool fax yours: This fax left Front Desk and is only in your inbox. To hand it back, Assign it to the pool.

Set it up: Admin → Fax Triage

Each category’s Send to can be A specific person, A pool, or Whoever handles unsure faxes. With A pool, everyone in the pool sees these faxes. Any of them can work one or take it. Unsure faxes in Fallback & escalation and When AI reading is off also take a person or a pool. Only pools with members are offered; create one or add people in Admin → Messaging → Pools. The people alerted about an urgent fax are always individuals.

Read the original pages and the triage summary

The fax detail shows the original pages alongside What this is, sender information, the Patient match, and any Automation results. Received uses the practice time zone. Attachments lists the files; Timeline records what happened to the fax.

Compare names, birth dates, and clinical information on the pages with the suggested chart. A summary or confident match is a starting point for review. If the reading is wrong, correct the category or patient; staff allowed to manage fax rules can also use Re-read.

Link the patient and file the fax to the chart

1. Check the Patient card. Confirm a suggested match or use Search for a patient… to select the correct chart. If a new patient needs a chart, review the extracted details before Create patient; use an existing chart when Hero finds a duplicate. Create patient is offered only to people allowed to register patients.
2. Use File to chart. This needs a linked patient. If automatic filing already completed, the action reads Filed to chart. Linking and filing are separate actions, so check filing rather than assuming that choosing a patient completed it.
3. Read the result. Under Automation, Chart import reports progress or an error. A completed import may also show how many chart values were added. Open in chart goes to the patient’s Media tab.
4. Finish the work. Add an optional Completion note under Finish and choose Mark done. This closes the work item; it does not itself file the document.

Handle faxed orders and refill requests

Review the original fax, verify the patient and medication or test details, and use the normal prescription builder or standalone order workflow for your clinical decision. A fax summary is not a prescription approval.

Electronic pharmacy requests appear in Rx, and patient refill requests appear in Refills. Those worklists are separate from Faxes. A faxed referral can also show referral automation and an Open referral action; see Inbound referral triage.

Check delivery and recover from a fax problem

A send confirmation means the fax was queued. Delivery is checked afterwards. For Hero Fax documents, open Admin → External Providers → Hero Fax and look under Your recent faxes. It lists documents you sent, their page count, status, and any error.

Referral delivery also appears on the referral. A queued referral is still awaiting final fax delivery; check its latest result when confirming that the receiving office has been sent the document.

For incoming work, Mark done moves a fax into Done. Junk moves an unwanted fax aside, and Not junk restores it. Right after you mark a fax done — with the button or the keyboard shortcut — Undo puts it back in Open. Later, open the Done folder, select the fax, and choose Reopen. Reopening returns the work item to Open and keeps its review notes and history; it does not undo anything already filed to the chart.

Get a dedicated Hero Fax number

A practice administrator or staff member allowed to manage integrations can set up Hero Fax under Admin → External Providers → Hero Fax, in the Fax group. This is a dedicated fax number, separate from the practice’s voice and text numbers.

To keep the practice’s current fax number instead, open Admin → Practice Setup, find Fax setup, and click Request port. Hero emails a short authorization form to sign and asks for a recent bill from your fax service. Keep your current fax service on until Hero says the move is done.

1. Choose one fax service. Disconnect every SRFax account in the practice before enabling Hero Fax. While Hero Fax is active, SRFax setup and sending are unavailable. Existing fax records remain available.
2. Search available numbers. Under Get a fax number, enter Area code, optionally narrow by Ends with, and press Search. If nothing matches, try a nearby area code or clear the ending.
3. Review the price. Choose Use this number, review the setup amount and monthly rental plus per-page usage, then confirm with Buy and set up. Quotes last ten minutes; an expired quote or a changed price returns you to current availability before purchase.
4. Wait for activation. Setup pending means setup has not finished. Use Refresh registration instead of buying a second number. Once active, Hero Fax handles incoming faxes, document sends, referrals, and automatic signed-note delivery.
5. Test both directions. Under Test send & receive, click Send test fax. Hero sends a synthetic page to your own number. Wait for both delivery and Received · test code verified; a delivered test alone does not prove the fax came back into the Inbox. Standard usage applies.

The setup screen shows number rental plus usage, and recent sends show page counts. There is no practice-facing monthly page-usage dashboard in this screen.

Send a document using saved fax contacts

1. Open Send fax from a document viewer. You can also upload a PDF under Send a document on the Hero Fax settings tab. Confirm the active Fax service. If the practice has no fax number yet, administrators and staff who manage integrations see Set up a Hero Fax number, which opens the Hero Fax tab; everyone else is asked to have their practice administrator set one up in External Providers → Hero Fax.
2. Choose the recipient. Pick from Saved contacts, or enter To fax number and Recipient name. Verify the number even when using a saved contact.
3. Save a new number when useful. Tick Save this number to your fax contacts (named after the recipient). A recipient name is required to save it. Contacts are shared with the practice, and are saved after the fax is queued successfully.
4. Review and send. Check Subject, the optional cover page and Cover page note, and Attachment. Submit the fax, then check its final delivery status as described above.

All contacts in one place. Manage contacts next to the saved contacts opens Admin → Contacts in a new browser tab, where you can add, change or delete every lab, imaging center and office your practice sends to (Contacts).

See what an incoming fax answers

Many incoming faxes answer something you sent: a records request, a referral, or an insurance appeal. The Reply to card in the fax’s detail pane pairs the incoming fax with the fax you sent, or with the appeal it answers, so the answer is found where the question was asked.

• Already linked. The card names the fax we sent (where it went, when and how many pages) or the appeal, and how it was linked: Linked by Hero, Linked by Billing Hero or Linked by staff. Hero links a fax to an appeal on its own only on strong evidence, such as the Hero appeal reference from our cover sheet, or the same claim number together with the same patient or member ID. A reply to an ordinary fax we sent is only suggested, for you to link.
• Suggestions. Under Might be a reply to (or Also might answer), Hero lists likely matches with what matched: Hero reference HA-…, Same claim number, Same patient, Same member ID, Faxed from the number we sent to, Same insurance company, Arrived after the appeal was sent. Click Link on the right one.
• Search. Find another… searches by patient, claim number or reference (HA-…) for appeals, or by fax number or recipient for faxes you sent.
• Undo a wrong link. Unlink asks Unlink this fax? (Keep or Unlink). Unlinking an appeal also removes anything the fax had added to that appeal for review.
• Open appeal opens the appeal in the practice’s appeal kit, where a linked answer waits under Needs your review — see Appeals.

Linking and unlinking need fax-triage access. The appeal parts of the card appear only for people who can work appeals.