You Already Read That Fax. Why Are You Charting It Again?
Jacob Kantrowitz
on
May 16, 2025
AI medical scribe technology can reduce charting time by ending the copy-paste loop.
Every primary care clinician has lived this workflow:
1. A fax comes in, maybe a discharge summary, a consult note, or imaging results.
2. You read it once to triage.
3. Then again while prepping for the visit.
4. Again during documentation.
5. And maybe once more during chart review or audit prep.
Each time, you’re typing (or retyping) the same key facts into different parts of the record, because your system doesn’t remember you already saw it.
Documentation should be a review, not a rewrite
This is a classic case of information chaos, a term coined by Beasley et al. to describe the fragmented, duplicative state of medical information in primary care. It creates friction, burns time, and increases the risk of error.
In our own peer-reviewed research, we found that much of what lives in the chart is duplicative—multiple rephrasings of the same problem, scattered across notes. These “documentation echoes” make chart review harder, not easier.
Stream: An AI medical scribe that reduces charting time and chaos
At River Records, we built Stream to solve this. Stream is a problem-oriented AI medical scribe that helps you:
• Structure notes around medical problems that persist across visits
• Update, not rewrite, so you’re not starting from scratch each time
• Maintain a clean, longitudinal problem list that’s easy to review
Stream helps clinicians reduce charting time by organizing information around clinical thinking, not encounter-based templates.
And yes, we’re building a fax endpoint
We know that faxes aren’t going away. That’s why we’re building a secure endpoint that lets Stream:
• Receive and parse incoming faxes
• Extract key medical data
• Thread that data directly into the relevant problem-based documentation
No more bouncing between inbox, chart, and note. Just structured documentation that reflects the clinical story as you understand it.
“Soon, even your faxes won’t require retyping.”
Want early access?
We’re offering early access to our fax ingestion feature as part of our Stream Chronic Care Suite. Sign up below to get on the list.
Further Reading:
• Beasley JW, et al. Information Chaos in Primary Care: Implications for Physician Performance and Patient Safety. JABFM, 2011.
• Steinkamp J, et al. Prevalence and Sources of Duplicate Information in the Electronic Medical Record, JAMA Network Open, 2022
