Healthcare IT directly impacts the quality of patient care, operational costs, and clinical efficiency. However, due to the complexity of the network, healthcare environments face a flood of challenges: unnecessary costs, regulatory compliance, security shortages, and workflow changes due to new processes or technology. Any of these instances negatively affect the entire healthcare ecosystem.
Sys Admins aim to incorporate a variety of systems into a simplified environment that's equipped to dodge many of these issues. Unfortunately, that goal isn't easy to attain. Hospital systems involve a myriad of clinical and non-clinical applications; connecting them all into a cohesive management system tends to turn into a painful, ongoing battle.
Where does printing fit into solving for this complex environment? In fact, printing tends to be a major part of the problem. Because healthcare environments often lean on inefficient print management practices, they tend to drastically escalate many IT issues. A reliable printing strategy, on the other hand, enables admins to prioritize speed, accuracy, and security in the entire healthcare process while simplifying their network.
How? That's what we'll discuss here today.
Did you know that regional healthcare systems spend up to $6 million per year on printing? Luckily, a chunk of those operational costs, including downtime, support tickets, spooler crashes, is largely unnecessary. Healthcare organizations that feel the pressure to optimize IT budgets should certainly look at printing first.
Why? A reliable printing strategy can eliminate that annual spending by up to 30%.
Here's how it works: print management solutions enable admins to operate large networks from a centralized location. The software offers optimal device management, ensures compatibility, and delivers a user-friendly, secure printing and scanning experience, every time.
By simply visually assigning print resources to users and devices, admins can scale with speed and efficiency. This approach also simplifies day to day IT management, empowering teams to adapt on the fly and keep operations running smoothly. Centralized printing also allows advanced capabilities for users, without requiring admin handholding or additional support.
To read more about the general benefits of print management, read our more in-depth article here.
Print management can eliminate many overhead issues — while upholding the pillars of effective healthcare. A simplified environment, easy integrations, and reduction in support tickets all result in improved patient care, which is the goal of any healthcare organization. Here's how the solution helps organizations get there.
A print management solution centralizes the myriad of healthcare systems. The software easily plugs into Citrix, VMware, Microsoft WVD and RDS, workstation and server-free printing environments, while integrating with complex healthcare-specific applications, such as McKesson, Cerner, Epic, NextGen, and many others. All endpoints and systems unite under a print management solution.
Print management makes printing work for any user, in any location. As we mentioned above, the right print management will seamlessly integrate with virtually any EMR/EHR, while ensuring compliance with healthcare-specific regulations. This means that admins gain complete control over printing functionality and access, while leaning on a highly encrypted, secure, and HIPAA-compliant process.
With print management, admins can control:
Nearly 1 in 4 IT support tickets are printing related. 15% of those escalate beyond the first level of support. That's a major hit to overhead costs.
The self-service capabilities of a print management solution allow users to control their own printing and reduce the amount of tickets. Instead of leaning on admin support, users gain instant access to the right printer for the job based on their location. This relieves the burden on admins that no longer have to manage individual user cases, allowing the system to automate the support.
Healthcare organizations run more efficiently when staff can focus on their jobs. Care providers should aim their full attention on patient needs, not on trivial tasks like slow or inconsistent printing. The same concept applies to sys admins. When all teams can focus on high-priority issues, they have a better clinical experience and add to the productivity of the organization.
Patient care improves as the healthcare system benefits from:
With Tricerat’s centralized print management, healthcare organizations can unite disparate systems and workflows in a secure, controlled way. By layering onto both clinical and non-clinical applications, our software delivers quick, secure, efficient, and flexible print management solutions to healthcare environments, no matter the size. Our 24/7 support service is also here to help organizations alleviate the burden of managing healthcare IT.
To learn more about print management in healthcare, download our free guide regarding 5 major healthcare printing issues and 5 ways to solve them.
