Managed Print Services for Healthcare

Managed print services is the outsourced management of an organization's printing environment. That includes the devices themselves, supplies, maintenance, security configuration, and ongoing monitoring.

Rather than reacting to failures and ordering supplies ad hoc, healthcare organizations partner with an MPS provider to keep the environment running proactively — and to treat print security as part of the broader compliance picture. 

Most healthcare organizations aren't dealing with one print problem. They're dealing with several, and none of them get the attention they deserve because patient care — rightfully — comes first.

Here's what tends to go unaddressed:

Print security for healthcare isn't prioritized

Networked printers are endpoints. They have hard drives, they process sensitive data, and they connect to the same infrastructure as clinical systems. But they're rarely patched on the same schedule as servers, rarely audited with the same rigor as workstations, and almost never get decommissioned with the same care as a laptop.

Healthcare is the single most targeted industry for ransomware and other cyber threats.

A cautionary tale

We once worked with a hospital that refused to upgrade its print security. We repeatedly recommended the upgrades, and we weren’t the only third-party to bring the problem to their attention. The hospital routinely failed third-party security audits. However, because time and resources were tight, they wanted to reserve both for improving patient outcomes.

One day, they fell victim to a ransomware attack and were forced to reroute ambulances to other hospitals — sometimes quite a distance away — for days.

Ignoring print security with the intent of providing better patient care can unfortunately have the opposite effect.

PHI exposure through printing is shockingly common

HIPAA requires healthcare organizations to safeguard protected health information (PHI) across every medium, including paper. Documents printed to shared devices and left in output trays, PHI accessible to staff without appropriate permissions, and devices not properly wiped at end of life are all HIPAA exposure points. They're also among the most common findings in OCR enforcement actions.

HealthReach Community Health Centers discovered this after the hard drives of several decommissioned printers — containing names, Social Security numbers, financial information, test results, and login credentials — were improperly disposed of by a third-party vendor, exposing over 117,000 patients.

A class action lawsuit followed, along with a year of identity theft monitoring for every affected patient.

The cost of proper print security would have been a fraction of the cost.

Print costs are inflated — and largely invisible

Back in 2018, a 1,500-bed hospital averaged over 8 million printed pages per month, adding up to $3.8 million in annual print costs. Paper and ink costs have spiked since then, and they're going to continue to get worse.

That said, supply costs are only a small piece of an organization's total print costs.

In most healthcare organizations, nobody owns this number. Supplies get ordered reactively by multiple departments. Devices aren't used efficiently, and wasteful printing habits go unchecked.

Print costs are buried across budget lines, if they're tracked at all.

IT teams absorb the burden no one else wants

As much as 40%–60% of internal help desk calls are printer-related. In a healthcare IT environment where the team is already stretched across EHR systems, network infrastructure, compliance requirements, and cybersecurity, that's an enormous tax on the people who should be focused on higher-stakes work.

All MPS providers are not the same. Generally speaking, however, MPS providers working for healthcare organizations will include the following services:

• An initial print assessment to identify what printers you have, how they’re being used, and where your fleet is or isn't meeting your needs
• In-depth conversations about your facility to make sure your print strategy is aligned with your long-term goals
• Ongoing print analytics
• Recommendations for tools and print policies that can help reduce waste and streamline work
• Recommendations for tools and policies that simplify HIPAA compliance
• Supply monitoring and automatic ordering
• Help desk support 
• Employee training
• Troubleshooting, repairs, and maintenance to improve reliability and reduce disruptions

Additional recommendations for healthcare

While print security services aren’t always included in MPS agreements, printers can provide hackers with an entry point into your critical systems and tools, and allow them to access sensitive data.

Depending on your provider, they might be able to provide any or all of the following security services: 

• Access to a dedicated print security team
• Secure passwords at setup 
• Multi-pass data overwrite of HDDs and NVRAM clearing
• Auxiliary uplift services

At Marco, we can provide all of these. We also have attained a SOC Type 2 report for our print services, verifying that we're consistently following best practices. 

A top MPS provider can provide a wide range of benefits for healthcare facilities, from long-term care facilities to regional healthcare centers. 

HIPAA compliant printing

Secure print release, device authentication, encrypted data transmission, and proper end-of-life procedures each address a different point where PHI can be exposed.

Maintaining all of these controls consistently — across a mixed fleet, across multiple facilities, with staff turnover affecting who's trained — is difficult to sustain without a dedicated partner. 

Reduced clinical downtime

In a clinical environment, printed documents aren't peripheral — medication records, discharge instructions, consent forms, and lab orders are procedurally required at specific points in patient care.

An MPS will provide the maintenance printers need to perform more reliably. But that's just the beginning. A provider that's equipped with top-of-the-line-software will also be able to provide predictive maintenance.

If a component is showing signs of wear and tear, they should be able to dispatch a technician with the right part before a failure occurs.

Relief for IT teams

Outsourcing print management removes printer-related help desk volume entirely.

That's not a small reduction for most healthcare IT teams — it's a meaningful reclaim of time that can be redirected toward security infrastructure, EHR maintenance, and work that has more direct impact on the organization's mission. 

Lower, more predictable costs

Unmanaged print spending is often an organization's third-highest expense, after rent and payroll.

At Marco, our team typically can reduce those costs by 10%–15% by:

• Updating wasteful default settings
• Enforcing print policies 
• Right-sizing and optimizing devices
• Streamlining maintenance needs
• Automating supply ordering

Managed print also transforms an unpredictable cost into a known investment that's easier to budget for. 

Protection from supply fraud

Toner pirate scams — fraudulent vendors that cold-call organizations and bill for supplies never ordered — are a widespread problem. 

Automated supply ordering through a verified provider closes that door while also preventing staff from ordering incorrect or unnecessary supplies. 

Competitive pricing

It's often assumed that purchasing directly from a manufacturer would automatically result in the best price. 

However, dealers tend to provide better pricing than manufacturers do.

Here's why:

• Dealers get the same wholesale price on equipment
• Manufacturers depend on revenue from each branch location
• Independent dealers aren’t beholden to a single manufacturer, so they can negotiate special pricing

Reduced staff frustration

Healthcare was facing a staffing crisis before the pandemic; it hasn't fully recovered since.

Clinicians and support staff are often managing heavier workloads with fewer people, and every task that falls outside their core responsibilities costs something.

Printer troubleshooting, chasing down supplies, or improvising around a device that's been failing for weeks are small problems on paper — but they land differently on a team that has no slack. Removing that friction doesn't just improve morale. It returns time and attention to the work that actually requires them. 

Managed print services are one of the rare business services that helps pay for itself. While a print expert should be happy to run more specific numbers for you on what you'd likely save, here are some tell-tale signs that the investment would be worth it. 

Signs managed print services would bring ROI

If several of these apply, it's time to have a conversation with a provider: 

• Your print devices haven't been through a security audit in the past year
• Default admin passwords are still active on some devices
• Staff print PHI to shared devices in common areas
• Decommissioned devices left the building without confirmed data wiping
• Your IT team handles printer support as part of their normal workload
• Supplies are ordered reactively, by multiple departments, without central tracking
• Print costs are inconsistently tracked — or not tracked at all
• Third-party audits have found print environment findings that haven't been resolved
• Printer failures have disrupted clinical workflows in the past 12 months
• You rely on a single-brand dealer but run a mixed fleet

If you’re curious about working with an MPS provider, you might see if they provide a complimentary print assessment.

If you haven't worked with an MPS provider recently, or you haven't shopped around, here's our criteria of what makes an excellent print partner for healthcare: 

Security and compliance

• They have a SOC 2 Type 2 report specific to their managed print offering — and they'll share it
• Print security is included in the standard agreement, not priced separately
• They have a dedicated print security team
• They handle secure decommissioning for every device type in your fleet
• They track end-of-manufacturer-support dates and flag them before it becomes your problem
• They bring up cybersecurity proactively — you shouldn't have to ask

Service and technical capability

• They monitor your equipment around the clock and address problems before devices fail — not after
• Their technicians are certified by the manufacturers of your equipment
• Parts are stocked and can ship within two days when something is needed on site
• They can resolve connectivity and network-level issues, not just device problems
• Their response times work with your operational hours
• They have proven experience with healthcare organizations at your scale

Vendor fit and commercial terms

• They take time to understand your organization and its needs before making recommendations
• Their software works across your full fleet, regardless of manufacturer
• Billing is automated, and they can accommodate special invoicing requirements — cost center allocation, multi-facility billing, whatever your finance team needs
• They participate in GPO contracts
• They have manufacturer partnerships that translate to competitive equipment pricing
• The contract lets you exit if they don't meet their requirements
• Their ticketing system integrates with yours for seamless support
• They check in regularly — the relationship doesn't end at the sale
• It's easy to understand what you're getting, what you need, and what it will cost

Above all, an excellent MPS provider should see themselves as a strategic business partner, and they should always have your best interests in mind.

If you notice any of these warning signs, you may want to consider a different provider: 

Contract and accountability

• There's no clear remedy if they miss a response time or any other commitment
• The contract doesn't allow you to exit early if they fail to deliver
• Contract language protects them from accountability while placing the burden on you
• It's unclear who is responsible for what, or what you should expect and when
• Repairs, replacement parts, or security services cost extra

Transparency and fit

• They don't have a proven track record with other healthcare clients
• They won't share their client list, or they hand-pick one or two references
• They don't have a SOC 2 Type 2 report, or anything else proving that they're following best practices consistently
• They don't pass basic vendor due diligence and aren't willing to address the gaps

Security and compliance

• Print security isn't in the standard agreement and never comes up in conversation
• They have no defined process for device decommissioning and data destruction
• HIPAA and compliance considerations don't come up — you have to raise them yourself

Additional Vendor Management Tips

If you’re trying to compare multiple MPS providers (which you should before signing a contract with anyone), their services should be spelled out in detail in their Service Level Agreement (SLA). 

When you read it over, pay special attention to guaranteed response times, escalation procedures, and who’s responsible for what. It may also be worth having a more in-depth conversation with a potential provider before signing anything. SLAs are just like any other contract in that they’re often negotiable.

We currently work with over 1,400 healthcare clients across the US. Every print engagement starts with a conversation about where print is causing problems — cost, compliance, IT burden, or all three. The organizations we work with range from large regional health systems to small skilled nursing facilities. The starting point looks different; the pattern doesn't.

At CentraCare Health System, which spans three hospitals, four long-term care facilities, and nearly a dozen clinics, they were spending close to $1 million a year on print across 50+ facilities — with no visibility into where that money was going and an IT team carrying the full support burden.

Here's what happened after they worked with our print team: 

• Print volume dropped 35%
• Average annual savings are $390,000 — every year since 2010
• $65,000 was recovered in a single year from unclaimed print jobs alone
• Average equipment age was cut from nine years to under four and a half

We've been in business since 1973 — what started as a small office supply shop has grown to include 650 certified systems engineers and technical representatives. We don't believe that growth was an accident. Continuous improvement has been a central part of our culture since the beginning. 

Here's what our partnership brings to healthcare clients: 

Print security

You shouldn't have to wonder if your provider is helping you with security or following best practices. We initiate those conversations because our clients deserve to know whether they are at risk. 

Manufacturer-agnostic software

Our goal is to help every client optimize their fleet over time, in a way that works with their budget.

But on day one, we can manage your full fleet regardless of brand, with consistent monitoring, supply automation, and reporting across every device. 

Strategic relationships

Our relationships with top manufacturers mean competitive equipment pricing that most providers can't match. 

A proven track record

We specialize in working with complex print environments like healthcare. When you work with us, you don't have to choose between security or cost benefits, or the close relationship you'd get from a local provider with the convenience and pricing you get from a national one. 

Proprietary technology

Our infrastructure management platform offers real-time visibility into every device in your print fleet, from toner levels to service history. You can also see our performance analytics, so the ROI we're providing is always clear. 

If you're curious whether our managed print services would be the best fit for your organization, click the link below to book a free consultation with a healthcare printing specialist.

We can provide additional clarity on how we work and how we could serve you. We're also happy to run the numbers on what our services would cost vs. what you're likely to save.