Managed Print Services Will Make a Healthy Difference
Healthcare is a big topic of conversation these days. It has seen dramatic growth. Which, of course, is no surprise to you if you own or manage a company somewhere in that sector. In your job, you’ll face challenges in managing different people, incorporating the latest technologies and providing top quality patient care.
Further, you must do it all with maximum economic efficiency. As a result, print supply chain management is probably not at the top of your daily discussion list. But with the way it can save money and make your business life easier, perhaps it ought to be.
To those outside the industry, it seems like “everything” is going electronic these days. But you know that’s not true. While HIPPA and a dozen other acronyms require you to pay more attention to the handling of records and other key documents, the amount of printed material involved in your daily activity is actually increasing. So today I’d like to explain how managed print services can take a huge burden from you while helping you to control costs.
Charting Your Print Production Demands
When consumers think of printed material involved in healthcare (especially with privacy and other concerns) they picture the forms on a doctor’s clipboard as she or he walks the halls, interacting with patients. But you must consider a much bigger picture and a much bigger print footprint. Check out this chart.
Category |
Printed Pieces Commonly Required |
| Staff Forms
|
The daily notes, bedside charts still a staple of most medical facilities. Desk notes, internal staff communication memos, etc. Walk through your halls, and you will see them in use on every desk and in every staff and patient room. |
| Accounting and Compliance
|
You send an invoice and collect fees. The “business” side of healthcare imposes as many demands as any other industry. In fact, the complexity and the tracking components supporting 360° suggest it demands even more. |
| Internal Communication and Training |
This covers plenty of ground, from associate newsletters to training and protocol updates. “Modules” are certainly popular, but a great many associates need to “see it in print’ before they fully embrace new techniques and policies and put them into practice. |
| Patient Information |
When new or existing patients arrive, what they want most is comfort and assurance. The printed materials available in waiting rooms or distributed by staff help provide it. Further, disease prevention and the encouragement of a healthy lifestyle are commanding much attention today. Thus there is an increased need for materials that present information to support those concepts. |
| Marketing Materials |
Healthcare is not immune to competition, and the need to promote your advanced technologies and the excellence of your staff and procedures is very real. Brochures, flyers, inserts, direct mail pieces and a dozen other pieces carry your story and your image to potential patients, community leaders and many other key influencers who impact your business. |
It’s an exhaustive list. But you may not have had the chance to see it for the major issue it can be. But now that you have, you can see that it is a situation worth addressing. Print management services can provide relief.
How Managed Print Services Can Help
When you align with an experienced print partner, your life and workday become easier in several ways. You can also better control your spending on print projects, and ensure that those projects are more consistent. Here are a few of the many tangible benefits managed print services can bring.
-
Uniformity
With managed print services, you gain access to advanced technologies like Superior’s Corporate Kiosk™. Forms that are compliant with all necessary regulations can be stored behind an online portal. You decide which people are authorized to order from that menu, and what variations are permissible. As a result, there are no errors that cause confusion or require a reprint. Confidentiality and security are assured.
-
Cost Efficiency
Managed print services help you track and minimize expense on all printed deliverables. On everyday forms, that minimizes rogue and rush orders. On patient and guest communications vehicles, an experienced print provider like Superior can rely upon a network of qualified vendors to deliver great-looking brochures, manuals or other items efficiently and economically. You enjoy real time savings and real-time reporting.
-
Quality
For digital, litho and specialty projects like capabilities brochures and other consumer-facing marketing materials, managed print services bring another benefit: image enhancement. A partner like Superior will competitively bid your project to multiple printers who (based on our long and deep experience) can deliver the quality you require on your schedule. (Superior has nearly 2,000 to choose from.) That means you lose the legwork and the worry, and gain confidence that your organization will put its best face forward.
-
Improved Labor Utilization
Your people deal with a multitude of responsibilities throughout their workdays. Quality healthcare requires focus and commitment. Is it fair, let alone efficient, to ask them to become experts at print production, especially in view of strict privacy and security considerations? A print partner knows that territory well and can meet those requirements comfortably. Your people can concentrate on what they do—and what you need them to do—best.
How Managed Print Services from Superior Will Help More
I’ve made a couple of references to Superior, but here, let me be more direct. For nearly 100 years, we have helped businesses in many sectors, including healthcare, operate more efficiently. Our ISO 9001:2015 certification should give you confidence that we—like you—are accustomed to meeting demanding standards through effective, repeatable processes and procedures.
We have earned Best of Print and Digital awards for the past two years based on our customers’ comments. That’s proof our practices are not only meticulous; they generate results for our clients. Contact Superior today for a print supply chain audit. It may give you one more thing for you to think about tomorrow. But as a result, you could have a lot less to worry about from the next day onward.
