360 words / 1.5 min read

Faxes are used thousands of times per day to send critical medical information in the health system. In the year 2025.

While faxes offer an instant method to transmit referrals, requisitions and other medical information, they aren’t foolproof. Some physicians tell us they ​“still cross their fingers” when they send requests by fax. There are over 500,000 requests for consultations and over 600,000 imaging requisitions sent per year, mostly by fax, in Manitoba.

A recent report found that just 19% of physicians in Manitoba can share information electronically, which is among the worst levels of connectivity in Canada according to a recent CIHI report. Only 14% of patients in Manitoba can access their information electronically, the lowest among all provinces (CIHI). Next door in Saskatchewan, 60% of patients can access their health information.

See this cheeky video we made describing how patient information is often shared in Manitoba.

The problem with fax machines isn’t just limited to a receiving machine malfunction, like was reported this week at St. Boniface Hospital. We are aware of tens of thousands of imaging requisitions stuck in a backlog with Shared Health, as they are received by fax at central intake and await manual entry into their computer system. In the past, a phone number change led to sensitive private medical information being faxed to a residential fax machine.

We have recommended solutions to this to support care coordination and reduce administrative burden. This should include secure electronic transmission that integrates with both the sending and receiving electronic medical record systems, with status/​progress tracking available.

This reinforces our own advocacy at Doctors Manitoba for health IT integration, and the need to involve physicians to ensure changes lead to less administrative burden, not more.

There are reasons to be hopeful all of these recommendations will lead to change.

• Earlier this year, the federal government announced Bill C‑72, legislation requiring digital health vendors in Canada to adopt common standards and allow for secure information sharing.

• The Manitoba government has committed $50 million in its 2024 budget to modernize electronic patient medical records,​“to move our healthcare system away from paper and fax machines and toward electronic patient records.”