Article 5 Ways Healthcare Scanners and Printers Improve Patient Experiences

Physicians, nurses and the whole healthcare provider team — whether they’re working in an acute or outpatient setting — all share one goal: to provide the best care possible.

Whether a patient is visiting their family doctor, optometrist, chiropractor, physical therapist, dentist or any other specialist, they expect an efficient, positive experience from the moment they walk in until the moment they schedule their next appointment.

How can healthcare organizations deliver better outcomes for both providers and patients? One solution is to lean on modern scanners and printers designed for the high-speed world of healthcare. Here are five of the leading benefits.

1. Faster Electronic Health Record (EHR) data entry

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 84.9% of adults visited a physician’s office in 2019 — and this number is only expected to climb, especially with the healthcare complications of 2020 to take into consideration. This stat reflects a mix of returning patients and new patients. Either way, there will most certainly be forms that the patients will be required to fill out prior to their appointments.

Epson offers durable, reliable scanners that have the capacity to handle a variety of documents and any workload size.

Imagine working in an environment where you could digitize all your files by capturing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) at a pace of 65 pages per minute. If less time is spent manually typing information, that means that more time can be allocated to having meaningful conversations with patients — and working on a strategic healthcare plan together. That’s a win-win scenario for all parties.

2. Enhanced security

Now, it goes without saying that the information collected from patients is highly sensitive. Unfortunately, hackers love targeting health data. In fact, 82% of hospital tech experts reported a “significant security incident” in 2019. Being able to securely store and transfer personal information between pharmacies for prescriptions, insurance companies for billing and laboratories for testing is a requirement for today's healthcare providers. Some ways to address this process are by leveraging:

• Secure PIN codes on all connected and wireless printers
• Encryption protocols, including IP Security (IPSEC)
• Scanning capabilities that create password-protected PDFs
• Control panels to safeguard all scanning devices
• Predefined lists of designations and restrictions
• Virus-resistant discs that cannot be altered or manipulated once burned

One of the reasons Epson is trusted by healthcare organizations around the world is because its printers and scanners include all the above features and more. With confidential printing, password-protected devices and secure data storage, healthcare companies can build strong provider-patient relationships based on trust.

3. More targeted, personal care

Each patient has their own history and treatment plan. As such, healthcare cannot be a cut-and-paste industry. One way to ensure each person receives care and medication that meets their specific needs is through personalization. For instance, consider an in-patient hospital setting. If a patient needs to receive medication in the middle of the night, the healthcare team can deliver the proper dosage without waking the patient by referencing their patient wristband. And, at pharmacies, staff carry a huge responsibility to safely and accurately provide patients with medication that could otherwise prove dangerous if given to the wrong recipient or in the wrong amount.

Epson printers help improve patient safety with on-demand, fast-drying, solvent-resistant color prescription labels and patient wristbands. Now, pharmacies can make sure each label is clear and precise. They can even add photos of the pill to an order to help patients more easily identify their appropriate bottles — an especially important feature for those who are on multiple medications that may look similar. Plus, combined with inkjet printing technologies, these devices can deliver up to thousands of pages per pack, resulting in up to 45% lower printing costs.

4. Reduced footprint

In the U.S., healthcare organizations generate nearly two billion pounds of paper and cardboard waste each year. Making the shift to a paperless workflow via digital scanners will not only help healthcare providers save on costs, but will also reduce the impact they have on the environment. Of course, as mentioned above, there will always be some need for printing too. In these instances, investing in energy-efficient devices will help reduce the impact on power, making these necessary tasks more sustainable. For example, Epson printers provide auto two-sided printing to help organizations save paper. Epson also provides:

• Energy savings — The color workgroup printers require no warmup time, unlike lasers, and use up to 70% less power.
• Greater control — 3LCD projectors feature an ECO Mode, which reduces lamp wattage, and a scheduling function to turn the projector off remotely at a predetermined time.
• ENERGY STAR qualified — The Epson TM-T88 Series features the world’s first ENERGY STAR-qualified Point-of-Sale (POS) thermal receipt printers.

These are just a few examples of how investing in smart technologies developed with the environment in mind can help healthcare providers maximize productivity while eliminating waste.

5. Improved processes

Healthcare providers are under immense pressure to improve workplace efficiency and patient care — while simultaneously cutting costs. To devote more time to focus on problem solving, providers need all key information upfront. That’s where products that are dependable, easy to use and easy to install can help ease the burden for hospitals, clinics, specialty offices and pharmacies. The more smart, reliable technology businesses can get into the hands of healthcare teams, the better the care they’re able to provide.

Benefits of investing in Epson devices that deliver better accuracy, reliability and precision include:

• Increased productivity
• Fewer errors and less downtime
• Simplified payments and admissions
• Accelerated training times
• Mitigated operational risks

Future-ready healthcare

Epson commercial document scanners include TWAIN and ISIS drivers, all models available from Insight, seamlessly integrate with existing document management applications to deliver better outcomes. Get powerful document capture and editing software to securely scan, send and print high volumes of jobs (regardless of document types and sizes).

As the healthcare industry continues to push forward, consider investing in a portfolio of high-performance devices that can effectively manage important documents, digitize information and deliver crisp-quality prints. It could be a game changer for your business and your patients.

Get reliability you can count on. Together, Insight and Epson are helping businesses around the world transition to high-performance, durable devices