How Anchorage Healthcare Offices Can Benefit from Specialized Office Printers

Document management systems, or DMS, have become a key tool in the modern business era. As more and more people are changing to paperless contracts and digitized In the healthcare industry, documents hold even more importance than they do in most businesses. Patient forms, prescriptions, lab results, invoices, consent forms, and other vital documents require reliable and secure printing procedures. So, you shouldn’t settle for your everyday, run-of-the-mill printer. Those who work in healthcare should consider investing in an office printer in Fairbanks, AK, that is tailored to meet the demands of handling healthcare documents. Keep reading to learn more about the kind of printer healthcare workers need, and how the right printer can benefit your office or clinic.

High Volume and High Speed

Healthcare facilities, depending on their size, can potentially generate millions of pages of documents every month; in fact, according to CynergisTek, the average 1,500-bed hospital prints over 8 million pages in a single month! Your typically desktop printer simply isn’t built to handle this kind of volume.

Specialized printers for the healthcare industry are better suited to this kind of high-demand printing environment. They have high duty cycles, which means they can keep printing at the same level of performance, without the high volume decreasing its output quality. They also come with a high print speed, so they can produce a large number of pages in a short amount of time, facilitating faster care for your patients.

Cost Control and Consistency

The cost of printing for a healthcare facility can often be underestimated. While $0.04 per page may seem like nothing to be concerned about, that number can add up quickly when you consider the amount of printing those in the healthcare industry do. Consider the 1,500-bed hospital mentioned above. At 8 million pages per month, such a facility would be spending $320,000 every month in printing costs. 

With such a high number, it’s important to control costs as much as you possibly can, and specialized printers can help. They can reduce redundancies and centralize the printing workflow, and even provide reminders for managing your print supply orders through predictive consumables forecasting. More efficient printing, and the ability to limit the amount of printing done in certain departments can also help to avoid unnecessary excess in your printing costs.

Security and Regulatory Compliance

The healthcare industry is heavily regulated, and most of those regulations are centered around how you handle your patients’ documents. Printers in healthcare must be looked at from a cybersecurity standpoint—just as you would with all of your computers and other devices. Specialized printers can provide numerous features that help to improve data security and keep you in compliance with healthcare regulations:

• Secure print release: Print jobs are held until the user authenticates themselves at the printer, preventing unauthorized individuals from picking up documents from the printer.

• Data encryption: Data is encrypted both in transit and on the device’s drives, so previous print jobs cannot be hacked and stolen for your patients’ information.

• Access controls and audit logging: These features are helpful for staying in compliance with HIPAA and other regulations, and are essential if you ever face an audit.

• Regular firmware updates: This is something you need to stay on top of with any printer for the purpose of functionality, but in healthcare, updating the firmware regularly can also decrease vulnerability to hacks and mitigate print-related cybersecurity threats.

Workflow Efficiency and Integration

Healthcare workflows can be complex, we know, and you might be surprised to hear that something like a printer can simplify it—but it’s true. Specialized printers support important functions that can improve workflow efficiency and aid in integration. Here are a few examples:

• EHR/EPR integration: This type of integration allows for direct document printing from electronic health records, removing extra steps from the process for greater efficiency.

• Automated routing: This allows your printer to recognize the type of document you’re printing and automatically route things like invoices, discharge forms, labels, and so on to specific devices for easy retrieval.

• Mobile and cloud printing support: This allows healthcare workers to print from tablets or mobile devices without compromising print security.

• Efficient scanning: This feature helps to convert paper documents to digital files quickly, reducing paperwork and making them easier to access.

How to Find the Right Printer for Your Healthcare Office

Worried that your current printer isn’t up to the high standards of the healthcare industry? You’re not alone. At Arctic Office Products, we understand how important your patients’ documents are, and we want to help you find a printer that allows you to handle them with the care they deserve. Here are a few tips to finding the right printer for your healthcare office:

1. Analyze Your Print Needs: Track the type of documents you print, the number of pages you print in a month, and which departments are doing most of your printing. This will help you to determine how high of a print duty your printer needs to have, and whether or not you’ll need multiple devices to meet all departments’ needs.

2. Visit our showroom to find a printer: Once you have an idea of what you need, come in to Arctic Office Products and speak with an associate. We’ll help you find the right printer(s) based on the print audit you performed.

3. Utilize secure printing policies: With your new printer in place, start off by immediately implementing authentication and secure print release requirements to meet compliance standards.

4. Set other print-use policies: Additionally, set out clear print policies regarding duplex printing, reducing waste, and allocating print budgets for each department.

When you’re ready to get started, contact us, and we’ll help you find a small office printer in Fairbanks, AK, for your healthcare office or clinic.