In healthcare, printing is an essential line item in the budget — but it might add more to the bottom line than it should. In fact, the average 1,500-bed hospital prints more than 8 million pages per month and spends $3.8 million on printing annually.
Printing infrastructure in healthcare organizations can be inefficient and wasteful. Ever-changing policies require printed collateral to be revised and reprinted, and failing to track toner and paper use means that supplies can be wasted or unavailable when needed. In short, the need for new patient-facing printed collateral requires continual management — and that can affect the bottom line.
“The hidden costs and waste associated with printing on [in-house] copiers can go unnoticed,” said Kevin Kaiser, national account manager for FedEx Office®. “The cost of toner, paper and service calls affects the bottom line, and the cost is quite high. Consolidating systems and moving to a print-on-demand model makes way for dramatic savings.”
Printing costs aren’t the only challenge in healthcare; hospital systems must also prioritize printing partners committed to privacy and security regulations, including HIPAA compliance. Of the HIPAA breaches reported to the Office for Civil Rights, 15% were due to printing errors — and fines for those violations can be up to $1.5 million.
Print providers can boost efficiency
Healthcare organizations juggle myriad printing needs from forms, brochures and signage to banners and tablecloths. Managing printing needs creates additional stress for healthcare personnel struggling with staff shortages, burnout and keeping up with new information. The need to print critical documents on tight turnarounds adds to that stress.
“[Administrators] can count on quick-turn printing and distribution for critical support during outages or times of crisis,” Kaiser said. “FedEx Office can function as backup support; document files can be housed in a catalog, emailed or brought in to one of our more than 2,000 [print] centers for fast turnaround.”
Outsourcing to a managed print provider can also reduce the time spent managing printer issues. Research shows that printer problems are one of the most common reasons for calling the help desk. Leaving printing to the pros means the IT team can focus on password problems, data loss and other common help desk issues instead of printer problems.
Reducing waste cuts costs
In the U.S., healthcare facilities generate almost 2 billion pounds of paper waste annually. Instead of having printed collateral sitting on the shelves (and discarding it when it becomes outdated), just-in-time printing models and print-on-demand sites let administrators print as needed.
A managed print provider like FedEx Office can alleviate the administrative burden and allow staff to focus on delivering quality healthcare.
“Just-in-time printing of signage and informational documentation is critical to help patients understand and can help them receive the most efficient care possible,” Kaiser said.
Working with a single vendor that can provide multiple printed products reduces the amount of time hospital staff spend coordinating with multiple service providers and offers pricing advantages.
FedEx Office also offers online tools that can provide a single point of access for managing customer-facing printed and electronic communications. These tools help ensure brand and legal compliance, and making printing more efficient and staff more productive also benefits the bottom line.
Kaiser pointed to tech tools that allow healthcare organizations to customize their marketing materials, upload them for printing, order the exact number of copies needed and have them printed at one of 2,200 locations nationwide. The ability to manage change requests and faster speed to market results in cost savings.
Customer support is priceless
Working with a single print provider that manages multiple workflows means just one person to call if a problem arises. Consolidating print services also means no hiccups from dealing with disparate workflows or multiple vendors that fail to collaborate.
At FedEx Office, account managers can evaluate current printing practices and offer solutions to reduce waste and make printing more streamlined.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large pharmaceutical distribution organization set up five climate-controlled warehouses to support the federal vaccine initiative and worked with FedEx Office to coordinate and streamline its communications. The contract included printing the color instruction sheets to ensure vaccines were packaged, shipped and stored according to strict instructions. The materials were printed within hours, allowing distribution centers to ship vaccines to healthcare providers as fast as possible.
“[We were] able to print the instruction sheets close to the distribution centers, in the quantities needed, just in time, cutting days from their workflow,” Kaiser explained.
Printing materials to support COVID-19 vaccine distribution is just one example of the ways FedEx Office national account managers work collaboratively with healthcare organizations, offering solutions, not just sales.
Schedule a consultation with FedEx Office to learn how a single provider can help your organization boost efficiency, cut costs and improve customer service.