The healthcare industry is bogged down with paperwork. Be it patient records, lab results from different departments, or even vendor invoices, paperwork is the foundation of healthcare. All this paper facilitates the sharing of patient information, or at least it once did.
Even before the pandemic, remote monitoring, virtual visits, and digital documentation were threatening to overwhelm healthcare organizations. These facilities had long been reliant on paper processes - the updating of charts, maintenance of paper files, and physical copies. With digital knocking at the door, every healthcare system in place from patient records to documentation was at risk without efficient systems in place.
That’s where managed print services for healthcare come in. To take total control of your documentation, scanning, printing devices, and even your print infrastructure can be difficult. Especially considering your priority is still patient care - not document management. With a managed print service program like Standley Services at your side, let us facilitate the transition from medical records to digital records, set up your printer fleets, and make sure your healthcare facility runs smoothly.
Your healthcare organization may not run entirely on paper anymore, but it relies on the digitized, automated, and streamlined processes that have replaced physical documentation. A managed print service should address all of your document management needs in a way that addresses security, confidentiality, while aiming to improve efficiencies in integral processes.
Healthcare professionals need access to records and lab results at all times. When facilitating the digital access of those records, whether through mobile printing or digital scanning options, privacy and regulatory compliance are also important.
Print management services can streamline these processes, establishing secure printing and digital authorizing to ensure privacy is not sacrificed for efficiency. As a healthcare provider, patients rely on you for their medical care but also the security of their personal health information. While digital services have done a lot to eliminate manual processes that inhibited patient care, it also leaves you open to potential vulnerabilities.
Print security, documentation access, and establishing a safe print environment are all part of managed print services. In addition to saving time, money, and valuable effort, medical personnel can focus on patient care.
With a document-heavy industry like healthcare, reducing waste should be a focal point of any healthcare organization. An average-sized hospital can print up to 8 million pages per month. With print volumes like this, not only is fiscal waste an issue, but deforestation is a real threat if the industry doesn’t curb its paper usage.
Reducing paper saves money while simultaneously being more environmentally-friendly. Every health facility has a supplies budget and reams of paper can add up to millions of dollars with figures like that. By implementing a digital records system, printing costs can be allocated towards improving patient care instead of on print jobs.
Everything associated with printing is another budgetary byline. Toner, ink, the constant replacing of old printers with new ones, and even scanners all represent costs that can drain your annual budget. Managed print services will streamline your printing processes, assess your print drivers, and assess your print devices to see how you can optimize your printing usage.
Inefficiently managed print systems are not just a drain on your budget, but also a waste of your time and personnel. If you have an IT department whose everyday activities include waiting on hold for a printer tech, constantly restarting a printer, or helping employees with their own print jobs, that’s a huge waste of an entire department or technician. Managed print services can reduce time your staff and those who rely on them are spent spinning their wheels until a printer functions correctly.
Just leaving a patient’s records on a printer can result in PHI being in the wrong hands. A healthcare worker could pick up the wrong results, keep them in the wrong file, and next thing you know you’re caught in the crosshairs of a HIPAA fine or even a malpractice lawsuit.
Risk management is a huge part of what managed print services can do to protect your healthcare business and those who operate within it. Establishing print security protocols, like job releases on communal printers, ensures that only people with the appropriate authorization can access records.
Certain PHI should only be accessible to authorized personnel. By ensuring that is upheld, you’re more likely to stay within HIPAA regulations, maintain compliance, and avoid costly fines or litigation.
Easier accessibility, increased printer functionality, and none of your staff have to be the ones responsible for the fleet of printers in your organization. Everyone’s personal printer, device, and scanner all represent a point of issue that a managed print services partner can deal with for you.
Making it easier to print, scan, fax, and share vital documents between personnel, patients, and departments is crucial to healthcare operations. Every inaccessible printer and document represents a snag in patient care that could be detrimental.
Managed print services facilitate with your print providers, technicians, and even your inconvenienced personnel to ensure that inefficiencies are overcome quickly. Alleviating this strain on your IT department and vital healthcare staff will save time, money, and lives.
Paper systems aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Regardless of digital’s attempt to render paper obsolete, systems like the legal system and the healthcare system are too set in their ways to shake it completely. In the interim, it’s important that you get your systems coordinated and efficient so patients’ lives aren’t impacted by inefficiencies.
Managed print services can establish new printers, networks, and help you assess where your most detrimental inefficiencies are. By understanding this and implementing print changes, you’re in a better position to save your healthcare organization time and money while your personnel focus their efforts on what really matters: the patients.
Reach out to Standley Systems today, a partner that will help you optimize your digital systems and streamline your printing processes. All while maintaining compliance with vital regulations and making the transition as easy on you as possible.