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UK Just Banned the National Health Service From Buying Any More Fax Machines (qz.com)
The UK's NHS will be banned from buying fax machines from next month -- and has been told by the government to phase out the machines entirely by 31 March 2020. From a report: More than 9,000 fax machines are in use by the NHS, a July survey found. All will be replaced by email, according to a report from the BBC. The shift, ordered by UK health secretary Matt Hancock, is intended to improve patient safety and make communications more secure. Rebecca McIntyre, a cognitive behavioral therapist, told the BBC that using fax machines made it difficult to ensure patient's information was actually sent to the right place, and that it wasn't being seen by non-authorized people. "You would not believe the palaver we have in the work place trying to communicate important documents to services (referrals etc)," she said. "We constantly receive faxes meant for other places in error but this is never reported." Further reading: The Fax is Not Yet Obsolete.
It's an occupational hazard. I work for a major US health insurer. We are doing what we can to eliminate faxes and year by year they are less important, but can we talk about secure email? There are so many platforms and for each one you have to have a login. Once you are inside the secure site, the functionality varies. Some allow you to download the message and attachments all together. Others do not, which is a huge pain when some sends over dozens of documents and you are taxed with downloading each one. All in the name of HIPAA.
The Stock Market only turned downward when it became obvious that the Dems would take the House. It's been positive for two years, and suddenly it starts tanking, mostly after the midterms handed the purse to the dems.