📠Flagship

Fax Triage & Assignment Engine

Your EMR’s eFax is a dumb pipe — it receives faxes but doesn’t sort them. This engine classifies every inbound fax by content and routes it to the right person automatically.

n8n + Gmail + Google Drive + SheetsAdvancedSaves 1–3 hrs/day

The problem

BC clinics receive 20–50 faxes per day through eFax services. Every single one lands in a single unsorted queue. An MOA manually opens each fax, reads it, decides what it is (referral? lab result? insurance form?), and figures out who should handle it. This takes 1–3 hours of pure admin time every day. Your EMR’s eFax integration receives faxes — but it doesn’t classify, route, or assign them. It’s a dumb pipe.

Why not just use your EMR / existing tools?

Your EMR’s eFax receives faxes but doesn’t classify them. No EMR vendor offers AI or rule-based classification of inbound fax content. OceanMD handles eReferrals (electronic), not faxed documents. This automation fills the gap between receiving a fax and knowing what to do with it.

How it works

1Watches your Gmail for incoming emails from your fax service (eFax, RingCentral, etc.)
2Checks for PDF attachments and saves them to a dedicated Google Drive folder
3Classifies the fax by keyword matching: referral, lab result, insurance, prescription, imaging, or other
4Creates a task row in Google Sheets with category, summary, sender, and assigned staff member
5Emails the assigned staff member with the fax details and a link to the task queue

What you need

✓n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud) — free tier works
✓Gmail account receiving faxes from your eFax service
✓Google Drive folder for fax storage
✓Google Sheets for the task queue
✓10 minutes for initial configuration

Download

Setup guide

Import the workflow into n8n

Download the JSON file below. In n8n, go to Workflows → Import from File and select the downloaded file. The workflow will appear with all 6 nodes pre-configured.

If you don't have n8n yet, the free cloud tier at n8n.io handles this workflow easily. Self-hosting is also an option for clinics that want full data control.

Connect your Gmail account

Click the "Watch for Fax Emails" node. Under Credential, click Create New and sign in with the Gmail account that receives your faxes. Update the subject filter to match your fax service (e.g., "efax", "ringcentral fax", or remove it to catch all emails).

Set up Google Drive folder

Create a folder in Google Drive called "Incoming Faxes" (or whatever you prefer). Click the "Save to Google Drive" node and select this folder. Connect your Google Drive credential if prompted.

Create the Task Queue spreadsheet

Create a new Google Sheet with these column headers in Row 1: Date Received, Source, Subject, Category, Assigned To, Status, Summary. Click the "Add to Task Queue" node and select this spreadsheet.

Customise the classification rules

Click the "Classify Fax Content" node to edit the JavaScript code. Update the category keywords to match your clinic's fax types. Update the email assignments (moa@yourclinic.ca, provider@yourclinic.ca, etc.) to your actual staff emails.

The default categories cover most BC clinics: referrals, lab results, prescriptions, insurance/pre-auth, and imaging. Add or remove categories as needed.

Activate the workflow

Toggle the workflow to Active. Send a test fax (or forward a recent fax email) to verify the full pipeline works: email received → attachment saved → classified → logged → staff notified.

Full code

fax-triage-workflow.json

{
  "name": "TOSC Fax Triage & Assignment Engine",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "parameters": {
        "pollTimes": { "item": [{ "mode": "everyMinute", "value": 5 }] },
        "filters": {
          "readStatus": "unread",
          "sender": "",
          "subject": "fax"
        },
        "options": { "downloadAttachments": true }
      },
      "id": "gmail-trigger",
      "name": "Watch for Fax Emails",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.gmailTrigger",
      "position": [240, 300],
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "conditions": {
          "boolean": [
          

// ... Enter your email above to see the full code

Sheet structure

Tab: Task Queue

Column	Description	Example
Date Received	Timestamp when fax was processed	2025-03-10T14:30:00Z
Source	Sender email or fax number	efax@ringcentral.com
Subject	Email subject line from fax service	Fax from 604-555-0123
Category	Auto-classified category	referral
Assigned To	Staff email for this category	moa@yourclinic.ca
Status	Task status (starts as New)	New
Summary	First 200 chars of fax content	referral to dr. jones cardiology...

Need help setting this up?

Book a free 30-minute call. We'll walk through the setup together and customise it for your clinic.

Book a Setup Call Full Implementation Consulting