It begins with one thing easy: a printout that’s by no means picked up. It could possibly be a affected person file, a discharge abstract, or a remedy plan. In a healthcare setting, the place affected person information privateness is paramount, an unattended piece of paper on a paper tray might develop into a major safety danger.
And but, as hospitals and clinics endure digital transformation, print remains to be an unlucky blind spot in lots of organizations’ safety and compliance methods. Within the face of tightening laws, evolving care fashions, and an increase in distant work, there has by no means been a better have to construct auditability and management into on a regular basis workflows – all whereas retaining affected person care transferring.
The hidden dangers of print
The obvious danger on the subject of print is information breaches. Whereas this may conjure up photos of exterior hackers, probably the most sensible sorts of information breaches are typically inadvertent and inner. IT groups can implement firewalls and entry controls in opposition to exterior brokers, however printed pages left unattended, misdirected print jobs, and lack of consumer authentication on the printer are all widespread weak factors that may put affected person belief and security on the road. And as compliance necessities develop more and more difficult below frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR, small dangers can result in reputational and financial liabilities.
One other challenge is workflow friction and fragmentation. The pandemic accelerated the decentralization of healthcare, the rise of cellular workforces, and the adoption of cloud-first options – all of which have added complexity to hospital IT infrastructure. It’s not unusual to see massive healthcare organizations grappling with competing priorities from totally different departments, a number of digital well being file (EHR) methods, and legacy print options that may’t sustain with the calls for of a busy office.
Even when they’re conscious that enhancements should be made, it’s extremely troublesome to implement fixes with out downtime that disrupts affected person care — successfully they’re constructing the automotive whereas they’re driving it. As an infinite healthcare group, you’ll be able to’t simply pull every part aside and begin from scratch.
What optimized print infrastructure seems to be like
So as an alternative of attempting to fully reimagine printing, I see the push to modernize healthcare methods opening a window for addressing print infrastructure. Even when print isn’t the driving force of main infrastructure tasks, it’s virtually at all times concerned. Each time a company adjusts a system, performs with workflows, does an integration, there’s a possibility to ask how they’ll enhance print on this piece of the puzzle.
For instance, we’re at present working with a outstanding educational medical middle within the US, who’s shifting their infrastructure to non-public cloud. Whereas print wasn’t the main focus, it grew to become important to consumer authentication and an unbroken audit path. In one other massive healthcare firm switching to Chrome OS, they discovered that their present print vendor didn’t help fundamental workflow wants.
However what would a really compliant print infrastructure embrace? Whereas the main focus is at all times on prioritizing care, you continue to have to inch your tech stack ahead with effectivity, safety, and redundancy as core pillars. Authentication is a extremely necessary a part of this, guaranteeing print jobs can solely be launched by the licensed consumer. It must be baked into each step: there are software program and {hardware} layers that require customers to authenticate earlier than accessing any software.
However the important thing ingredient is auditability; monitoring who printed what, the place, and when. It’s the one low-effort, high-impact change that may make an enormous distinction on the subject of enhancing compliance. With detailed audit trails, IT groups can spot points, hint information flows, and handle dangers — making compliance not simply simpler, however smarter.
Getting compliance and clinicians on the identical web page
In the end, any expertise in a healthcare setting is there to assist frontline employees do their job – prioritizing clinicians’ workflows, not including friction. In fact, the truth is that organizations should additionally meet compliance necessities to verify their sufferers are protected, so it’s about getting the stability proper.
To this finish, I like to recommend focusing first on usability: delivering a constant printing expertise, no matter which endpoint the consumer is uncovered to. The opposite non-negotiable is interoperability, guaranteeing print administration software program integrates with different methods. Clinicians can nonetheless use their regular purposes to offer care, whereas a print administration resolution is working arduous behind the scenes to allow that with out impacting the consumer’s expertise.
Take a workstation on wheels, for instance. It’s one thing you are taking as a right once you go right into a hospital. However the complexity behind offering that mobility is immense; it entails enabling consumer switching whereas guaranteeing correct and exact entry management, authentication, monitoring and auditing. And this all has to occur seamlessly so the consumer doesn’t even discover; it’s not holding up their workflow whereas they’re signing out and in of assorted purposes.
So, after we design our options, we’re trying on the world that clinicians work in and the actual duties they’re attempting to carry out. We don’t wish to get in the way in which of that; what we’re doing is constructing software program that may stay and breathe with them. Good software program doesn’t interrupt the workflow – it helps it.
Print because the widespread denominator
Print might not be probably the most thrilling a part of a healthcare tech stack. However as a result of it’s a commonality throughout all departments – everybody must print one thing at some stage – print administration truly turns into a approach to coordinate the larger image. Figuring out that print is the tip level to your workflow means you’ll be able to construct backwards, utilizing print as a lens to judge safety and compliance throughout your total group.
The auditability that print administration methods present is crucial to assembly compliance and regulatory necessities. Put merely, for those who’re at nighttime, you’ll be able to’t hint what’s occurred alongside the chain. With a transparent audit path, you can begin setting up insurance policies and methods to drive the continual enchancment of your total ecosystem, however it begins and ends with print.
About Matt Buttrey
Mat spends a lot of his working hours listening to healthcare companions and clients world wide. This method is pushed by his pursuit of technical excellence in print administration software program for the healthcare business. Mat arrange PaperCut Software program’s devoted healthcare workforce in 2019 and continues to champion the innovation round printing, scanning, and faxing inside the healthcare world.
