July 8, 2024
CentraCare, a not-for-profit healthcare provider serving thousands of patients throughout Central Minnesota, originally contacted us because they wanted to manage their fleet of printers more efficiently. That was especially important because the organization had multiple locations throughout the region, including hospitals, nursing homes, senior housing facilities, and clinics.
How Managed Print Services Helped CentraCare Health
At Marco, our managed print services (MPS) program often helps clients start saving almost immediately while continuously optimizing their print environment over time. However, those immediate savings can’t come at the cost of productivity. When we conduct our initial print assessment, we get a solid understanding of an organization’s print needs before we offer recommendations.
Here’s what we accomplished for CentraCare Health:
- Reduced their total print costs by $350,000-$400,000 each year
- Right-sizing their fleet by eliminating 89 unnecessary printing devices and their maintenance, repair, and supply costs
- Standardizing their devices to 500 HP printers, with 200 multifunction devices to meet the needs of various departments and locations
- Implemented secure printing
Why Secure Printing for Healthcare Facilities?
Secure printing is extraordinarily helpful in reducing print waste. In just one year, CentraCare saved more than $65,000 in print jobs that were never picked up from the tray.
For healthcare organizations in particular, documents left lying in a tray are a legal and financial liability if they contain sensitive information. Using PaperCut MF, CentraCare ensured that sensitive documents were held in the print queue and not produced until the individual employee who ordered the job swiped an ID card to release it.
How Those Cost Savings Will Grow Throughout Their Print Environment
Print needs change, which is why Marco’s MPS program doesn’t consider its initial recommendations to be anything other than a good starting point.
Analytics and Reporting for Healthcare Print Environments
As CentraCare grows, its five-year MPS program is designed to help its print environment continuously adapt to the needs of its hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics.
Our advanced managed print software collects detailed analytics around the health of each device (regardless of manufacturer) and the printing habits of every department. That allows us to automate supply ordering and anticipate most print disruptions. It also offers our clients an incredible amount of insight into their print environment and ensures that every department is complying with print policies and regulations.
Why Healthcare and MPS Go Together
MPS is an obvious choice for organizations because it helps ensure patient confidentiality while also cutting costs. However, there are some less obvious reasons why healthcare organizations that have gotten by without managed print should consider it in 2024 and beyond.
Proactive Maintenance Can Reduce Disruptions
A good MPS provider will address any disruptions quickly. But an excellent one can help prevent them from happening. Modern print management software is able to tell if a component is about to fail, allowing us to dispatch a technician to a location with the correct repair part before it causes a problem. For offices with significant print needs, that’s a huge benefit, but for a 24/7 healthcare organization, it can be a godsend.
Security and Compliance Needs Are Evolving
Cybercriminals have figured out how to use unsecured printing devices to launch ransomware attacks and other attacks, and they have shown no mercy toward hospitals and other healthcare organizations.
Here are just a few recent statistics:
- 141 US hospitals were affected by ransomware in 2023
- One single ransomware attack caused the cancelation of scheduled procedures and the rerouting of emergency patients in three states
- Public health experts estimate that ransomware has killed 42-67 Medicare patients between 2016 and 2021
It’s very difficult for many healthcare organizations with budgets already stretched thin to spend money on anything other than directly improving patient outcomes. Unfortunately, failing to invest in proper cybersecurity — including printing devices — can be deadly.
Streamlining Print Processes in Hospitals Goes a Long, Long Way
Modern printers are “smarter” than people give them credit for and can streamline the process of digitizing paper documents, eliminating the need for manual scanning and file transfers.
IT Time Is Expensive
Maintaining printers is typically not an IT pro’s favorite task. Let’s also not forget that IT time is expensive. At organizations where more complex IT projects are frequently interrupted to attend to cranky printers, it’s more than just an annoyance. It can be a hidden budget drain.
The Easiest Way to Implement HIPAA-Compliant Print Management Solutions
You can always conduct a print assessment, invest in print management software, and implement secure printing on your own, but that takes time. And the nice thing about managed print services is it helps pay for itself.
Managed print providers typically charge extra to help you maintain print security, but because Marco is large enough to have a dedicated print security team, we include this service for all MPS clients. To be fair, managed print has come a long way over the past ten years; if it’s been some time since you’ve researched what’s available, it might be time to give it another look.
Click the link below to get our MPS guide, created specifically for healthcare organizations!
