The healthcare industry continues to be a target for increasingly clever cybercriminals looking for ways to make inroads into large amounts of sensitive data quickly.

In 2019 alone, the healthcare sector lost 41.4 million records to data breaches — a 49% increase over the previous years. Ransomware attacks are common, but non secure remote connections, improperly handled documents, and lack of employee education on security are big vulnerabilities.

Besides handling highly confidential data, many healthcare systems do not have the information technology resources to keep this information fully protected.

Given the variety of technologies used by hospitals and doctor’s offices and the number of individuals involved in managing patient care, a healthcare-based IT print and security solution is necessarily complex, requiring intense, specialized knowledge to deploy and maintain.

For most healthcare applications, a managed print solution can help save your organization money, time, and worry while ensuring your sensitive data is protected.

Managed Print Advantages for Healthcare Applications

Printing is one of a healthcare organization’s highest costs, yet many facilities do not track their printing spending, which can result in widespread waste and even abuse.

With revenue cycle IT budgets shrinking in the post-pandemic environment, health systems are struggling to find IT resources that can give them the economies of scale they need to stay solvent.

Using a managed print provider can not only bolster lagging IT resources, but it can provide ways to reduce the total ownership cost of printing by 40% or more.

Here are three important ways a robust managed print program can optimize healthcare business processes and help organizations practice cost control.

1. Managing Security

Healthcare entities are required to be compliant with a number of data protection and privacy guidelines, foremost among them HIPAA.

Managed print strategies such as secure pull printing workflows, audit trails, access controls, encryption, and password protection are all strong solutions for data security.

In addition, your managed print services (MPS) provider can help you develop a proactive compliance strategy that is policy-based. These strategies include features such as turning off unnecessary protocols, disabling file access, managing firmware updates, and securing printer ports to minimize points of vulnerability.

2. Managing Costs

Managing print costs comprises more than just optimizing your fleet. Using complex analytics and tracking, healthcare facilities can achieve a 40% or more reduction in total print volume in addition to an asset reduction of half or more.

Tracking print costs will help control the amount of expensive color prints and automated replenishment systems can result in up to a 35% reduction in costs from external vendors across the supply chain.

3. Managing Data

Hospitals and other medical facilities regularly deal with a large amount of sensitive data. Not only must this data be properly secured, but it must be easy to access by authorized personnel to avoid slowdowns in care and treatment.

A managed print solutions gives organizations access to document management software and systems that promote agile and intuitive information management, so personnel can find the information they need quickly.

Trust Blue Technologies with Your Managed Print Needs

Many healthcare entities don’t take advantage of the power that a centrally managed print program can bring to their facilities — reducing costs and increasing the level of patient care.

Blue Technologies is committed to developing custom-tailored print strategies that target the needs and challenges of the medical environment and assist facilities in understanding their print spending so they can begin to control costs at the source.

Our team of IT experts are an extension of your staff, expertly managing your print environment so you can concentrate more fully on patient care and other crucial management tasks.

We begin with an in-depth assessment of your infrastructure, develop a comprehensive program for optimizing or modifying your current fleet, deploy automated supply replenishment, secure EHRs with enhanced protocols, and integrate with your current healthcare software.

Once your system is in place and working well, we provide routine maintenance and ongoing service to limit downtime, extend the life of your assets, and keep your staff productive.

Don’t let budget cuts interfere with your ability to serve patients. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant today and learn how our Managed Print services can help you reduce costs so you can keep providing the high level services your patients need.