3 steps to consider when developing your output management strategy

It’s a scenario that is all too typical on the day of discharge: At a time when critical information must be conveyed to patients — from follow-up instructions and prescriptions to maps and appointment reminders — nurses find themselves walking back and forth to the printer, retrieving document after document.

Every day, precious time and resources are lost in healthcare organizations as providers print documents separately, often from multiple systems and to multiple printers, and collect stacks of paper to deliver to patients. That’s not even counting the time staff must spend maintaining printers and traveling back and forth to them.

But what if there were a better way?

For progressive healthcare organizations, an approach called output management is changing the way they monitor and manage multifunction printers (MFPs) and other output devices across the enterprise.

3 key steps to get started

So where should healthcare leaders begin? Here are three key starting points:

Conduct a security assessment. Review printed outputs from every device in the enterprise — from wristbands to reports to prescriptions. Create a checklist to address HIPAA security and privacy requirements for printed output. By comparing the appropriate regulations to the organization’s real-world printing activities, gaps can be identified in print output compliance before they become a violation or reach the point of a full-blown crisis.

Take control in a shared-printing environment. An organization can maintain a centralized printing strategy without sacrificing security. Convenient and secure card-based methods are essential for printing confidential documents, even in an open unsecured workspace. Organizations can also encrypt data both in transit and at rest on the printer to help protect sensitive information before it is printed.

Protect critical health information wherever it travels. Information isn’t only at risk when traveling from computer to computer. Lockable print trays help protect special forms such as prescriptions, while ID verification-required printing keeps confidential output safe. Devices equipped with image overwriting capabilities can protect the printer’s hard drive against more sophisticated thieves. Output management software can also help track sensitive print jobs and store their data in one central location, so you can easily trace back exactly where a document originated.

A well-thought-out output management strategy not only helps streamline patient admission and discharge processes and reduce IT costs, but it also helps protect the environment with less paper output.