Healthcare District
Material Safety Data Sheet Collection
Fax Barcode Solution

Challenge:	Add Paper Documents to on-line Transactions
Solution:	Universal Document Tag™ Fax Barcode

Challenge

The web development company was hired by a Healthcare District to streamline its business process for handling hazardous material safety data sheets.

The Healthcare District received, by fax and mail, large numbers of material safety data sheets from many chemical manufacturers. The material safety data sheets were photocopied up to 250 times each and distributed to personnel at various locations. Every 3 years many material safety data sheets expired.

The web development company was asked to develop a web based document management system. The system had to automatically collect the material safety data sheets and make them accessible to personnel at 7 healthcare facilities.

Solution

The web development company created a web database or "virtual binder" system.

Material safety data sheets are collected automatically by fax using barcoded fax cover sheets created using i-fax.com's Barcode Plug-In.

Each time a fax cover sheet is created, i-fax.com's Barcode Plug-In encodes the fax cover sheet with a unique barcode. This barcode links a particular cover sheet and material safety data sheet to a specific record in the web database or "virtual binder".

When the barcoded cover page is faxed with the material data safety sheet attached, the material safety data sheet is automatically filed as an image in the virtual binder.

New Business Process:

1. Chemical manufacturer logs onto Healthcare District's "virtual binder" website to add new material safety data sheet.
2. Healthcare District's website, using i-fax.com's Plug-In, automatically generates a barcoded fax cover page for manufacturer to print.
3. Manufacturer prints barcoded fax cover sheet and faxes it with the material safety data sheet attached to Healthcare District's toll free fax number on i-fax.com's system.
4. i-fax.com receives the barcoded fax cover sheet and material safety data sheet for processing.
5. i-fax.com reads the barcode on the fax cover page, converts the attached material safety data sheet to a TIFF image and files it in the Healthcare District's virtual binder which resides on the Healthcare District's web server.
   (The material safety data sheet passes through i-fax.com's system for processing but is filed and stored on the healthcare districts' web server.)
6. An email notification is automatically sent to all relevant Healthcare District personnel to inform them that a material safety data sheet has been filed in the "virtual binder".
7. Authorized personnel can view the material safety data sheet on-line.

Benefits

• Cut labor costs by reducing the number of filing clerks from 7 to 1
• Cut costs for photocopying, mailing and faxing
• Accelerated the collection and distribution of material safety data sheets
• Easy for manufacturers to send material safety data sheets by fax
• Simple solution that users adapted to quickly