The Benefits Of Print Management In Healthcare

By Noel O'Dwyer, director, MFP alliances, document imaging group, Nuance

Healthcare providers and their IT departments are facing pressure from several different areas today. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 changed the way technology needed to be integrated into the healthcare IT infrastructure and put a new emphasis on patient rights and confidentiality. Now, with the passing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Act, there are even more incentives for healthcare providers to conform to, and penalties for not. In addition, the current economic environment and the mandate for universal healthcare coverage is pushing providers to find ways to reduce waste, cut costs and find innovative, sustainable, green practices. With these big issues facing healthcare providers today, the question becomes: Is there a way to address regulatory compliance, patient record security, and cost savings with a single solution? The answer is yes, and the solution is intelligent print management software.

There has been much media attention lately about printers, copiers, and MFP (multifunction peripheral) devices being a liability to companies. Recently, I addressed this topic with a group of healthcare providers at the CIO Healthcare Summit in Phoenix Arizona. What was evident to the industry is that unless organizations implement a document output security strategy that helps ensure the privacy of patient Protected Health Information (PHI) across their entire network, they are putting critical information at risk. Without controls in place, printers and copiers can be conduits into a system's protected environment. It's vital to know who printed what and when, and just as important to ensure PHI is never left in output trays.