Even though modern healthcare has notched great heights in offering efficient services to all, theneed of
documentation is not fading away soon and hence choosing the right medical printers andscanners is crucial. A closer look.
By Sharmila Das, Elets News Network (ENN)
Rajeev Tewari
Director & Divisional Head, ConsumerSystems Products Group, Canon India
The healthcare sector has traveledto a point where the need ofproper documentation increasedmanifold. Although the arrival of digitalmedium like Electronic Medical Record(EMR) has made the task much easieryet the traditional method has not fadedaway. The modern day practitionersstill need different kinds of printers andscanners in their day to day operation.
IT deployment has gained paramount importance in the Indian healthcare delivery segment. Its being implemented of the hospitals, ranging from billing and finance to administration and even patient care
The reality is that medical practicesmanage an enormous number of paperdocuments in the office in the form of referralrequests, consultation reports, historicalpatient data, diagnostic reports,and reports from third parties. After thedocumentation, this information has tomake its way efficiently into the EMR anddocuments generated by the EMR suchas prescriptions and handouts have tobe provided to patients, medical colleagues,and a multitude of additionalindividuals.
Thus, the need to have good printersand scanners in a medical infrastructureto manage the documents is extremelyimportant.
When talking about document scan-ning management needs, documentscan be divided into two distinct categoriesbased on the need.
- Documents that need to be storedand archived for historical purposes.For instance, the treatment history of a patient including all thereport charts.
- Documents generated on a day-todaybasis in the management of patientcare and in the other managementfunctions.
Each of these document categorieshas different scanning requirements. Ahost number of small footprint scannersare available in the market to manageday-to-day scanning of documents in ahospital infrastructure.
What to choose?
Greater print efficiency and wireless capabilityare some of the most importantconsiderations when choosing a printerfor medical infrastructure. Small footprintprinters that can easily be installedin an examination room are desirable ifpractitioners would like to print and handinformation to a patient without disturbingthe clinical encounter.
Also, if one needs to walk out of theexamination room to collect every documentthat is printed, can be very unrulyto patient care. Again there is higher ongoingmaintenance cost with an inkjetprinter than the same laser printer. Itmay be cost-effective to have a numberof multifunction printer/scanners in theclinic/hospital premises wirelessly connectedto a network. Also if the hospitalmanagement is dependent on a singlemultifunction printer/scanner and thedevice fails, one will lose all the devicesat the same time. It is best to keep aspare in reserve in case of emergencies.
Rajeev Tewari, Director and DivisionalHead, Consumer Systems Products(CSP) Group, Canon India, says, IT deploymenthas gained paramount importancein the Indian healthcare deliverysegment. Its being implemented in variousdepartments of the hospitals, rangingfrom billing and finance to administrationand even patient care, thereby
simplifying the operations to a greatextent. These days hospitals are in-creasingly using printers and scannersfor archiving databank and documentprinting. This saves time and ensureserror free documents and investigationreports. Printers offer high quality colorprints, color prints are being used formedical reports, investigations etc andalso help in clear understanding of thesymptoms etc.
Criteria to Choose a Printer/Scanner
Jasmeet Singh
CEO, Portronics Digital
Jasmeet Singh, CEO, Portronics Digitalsays, Brand name, servicing capabilitiesof the company, pricing anddelivery schedules are the major criteriahospitals follow for the purchase.The scanners and printers vary as perrequirements. They could have a verybasic requirement of document printingand scanning; in that case they buysome basic scanners and printers orall in ones. They could have special requirementsof Ultrasound scanners andother technical ones also.
The scanners andprinters vary as perrequirements. Theycould have a very basicrequirement of documentprinting and scanning.They could havespecial requirements ofUltrasound scanners andother technical ones also
Hemant Rai, Kyocera Mita says,Hospitals use body scanning equipment,X-rays, Ultra sound, MRI scanningetc. The printer is used to print theoutput of these scanned file from abovedevices. Depending on work load andusage of division – Finance, Purchase,HR, Logistics etc like any other organizationthe printer/MFP is used.Tewari adds,
The requirement for aprinter or scanner depends on the hospitalsoperational need and infrastructure.It also on the type of healthcarecentre i.e. whether it is a full-fledgedhospital or just a path lab or diagnosticcentre. For instance a multi facility hospitalwould require large format printersand multifunction devices to carryout various tasks at one time whereasa small path lab or a diagnostic centremay need a small printers and scannersfor their official use.
Greater printefficiency andwireless capabilityare some of themost importantconsiderationswhen choosing aprinter for medicalinfrastructure.
To conclude, it would be safe to saythat depending on the usages oneshould go for installing printers andscanners so that ultimately the objectivedoes not go haywire.
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