Two-thirds of businesses rank printing among their top security concerns. When you add a compliance-heavy healthcare environment to the mix, the concerns only escalate. As hospitals expand their territories to accommodate the influx of incoming patients — to temporary tents and free public spaces, such as college gyms — remote printing poses a threat to not only HIPAA compliance but also to patient safety overall.
As hospitals run out of beds and manage overwhelmed staff, field hospitals will continue to operate to relieve the burden. However, the stringent healthcare security requirements don’t change, no matter whether healthcare staff or technicians work on-site or remotely. That’s why it’s vital to ensure a secure, breach-free printing environment in these temporary spaces.
As hospitals expand operations, the demand for security increases. However, not all enterprise printing solutions can keep up with this requirement. Many legacy print servers are inherently vulnerable to exploitation, jeopardizing sensitive data, personally identifiable information (PII) and other patient information.
In addition, the increasing need for field hospitals creates dispersed environments that risk exposure to threat actors even more. As print-job data travels from one site to another, the data is exposed to a breach any time it crosses the wide-area network (WAN). This poses a significant challenge in attempting to create a remote site for secure printing.
Print management is a challenge even in a single hospital location. As locations double, triple or quadruple with temporary hospital sites, overseeing and enforcing secure printing seems impossible. Plus, with a dynamic workforce that requires constant collaboration — physicians, providers, and insurance companies — keeping that line of communication secured is more daunting than ever.
Centralized printing solutions can help healthcare administrators manage printing from a single management console, regardless of the application delivery method, simplifying deployment and streamlining ongoing support. By eliminating printer drivers and 32-/64-bit compatibility issues, centralized printing ensures fast, secure printing in remote environments.
In addition, centralized solutions enable the following capabilities:
Utilizing proximity-based printing allows sysadmins to assign printers based on patient or physician name or IP address. No matter if the healthcare provider is on-site or in a remote location, every print job aligns the correct credentials and the printer, so that the information goes exactly where it needs to go, ensuring private data remains private.
With a centralized print server and a single-source print management console, healthcare professionals can print on demand in remote sites — without IT intervention or interruption in quality of care, and in full compliance with HIPAA.
Some centralized printing solutions add safeguards for remote printing, including secure print with a PIN code or badge release. Integration of printing methods including abilities to manage the release of print jobs allows practitioners to verify that the print job is picked up when printed.
Plus, when the centralized print solution integrates with major EHS/EMR interfaces, in addition to various environments such as Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, all data traveling from one source to another remains private to those networks. With this added layer of security, remote doctors and technicians are supported with a flexible print solution.
As it continues to expand, the healthcare print infrastructure is now more vulnerable than ever, exposing patients and staff to data breaches, compliance issues and financial losses. A centralized print management solution can ensure that all private data, whether exchanged on-site, remotely, or both, remains completely secure. By eliminating that concern from healthcare and IT staff, hospitals can empower these essential workers to return to their crucial jobs with more confidence.
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Not all print management solutions are made the same. To take advantage of optimal workflows, the healthcare environment requires advanced print management solutions. All others may fall short of the fast paced and high stakes healthcare needs.
With Tricerat print management solutions, you can unite various field hospital systems with top security methods. By seamlessly layering onto EHR and EMR systems, we deliver quick, secure, efficient, and flexible enterprise print management solutions to healthcare environments. Plus, with our ongoing 24/7 support, you can relive some of the burden on hospital IT admins during this critical time.
With partners like Centers for Dialysis Care, Cabrini Health, a leading US health benefits company, and more, we are confident in providing effective solutions in the healthcare environment.