How Managed Print Services Assist the Pharmaceutical Industry
Companies in the pharmaceutical industry face unique challenges. Pharmaceutical printing includes a wide variety of media and sizes. Everything from prescription documents to labels and package inserts must be accurate and readable. A mistake as simple as a typo or smudge can have deadly consequences.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates drug overdose deaths increased from 6.1 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21.7 in 2017. While addiction and abuse are certainly factors, there are no denying proper prescriptions, and educational materials are effective, life-saving tools. Managed print services can help.
Managed Print Services Uses in Pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceutical printing occurs from manufacturing through retail. Paper prescriptions are often given to patients by doctors, while a digital receipt is sent to the pharmacy and insurance company. A single retail pharmacist can see hundreds of patients from hundreds of healthcare providers in a single day. Each has its own data policies.
Using managed print services provides six critical benefits to the pharmaceutical industry.
1. Employees Can Work from Anywhere
Spending on medicine has increased in the U.S. every year since 2002. Sales are the lifeblood of any pharmaceutical company, and that requires a team of traveling sales reps informing doctors and hospitals about new drug releases. These traveling professionals need a secure, HIPAA-compliant way to print orders remotely.
Managed print services help everyone in the business access shared resources across the cloud. It ensures printers, copiers, and scanners are optimized to allow roaming employees to maintain documents in a secure location. This makes record-keeping easier across a larger global footprint.
2. Cut Costs and Reduce Paper Usage
Pharmaceutical printing involves a lot of fine print and barcodes. Any errors create higher overhead costs due to the need to reprint. More paperwork gets involved with every purchase, as receipts and backups of records are often necessary.
Managed print services reduce the need for pharmaceutical printing. When it is necessary, jobs are scheduled and organized to make the most efficient use of available resources. In addition, proactively monitoring resources like toner and paper reduce system downtime and other productivity bottlenecks.
3. Safeguard Information
Pharmacies are frequent targets of criminal behavior. The enhanced document security of managed print services minimizes the possibility of fraud or stolen information. Because retail environments are both busy and filled with customers, retail pharmacists can easily get overwhelmed and become victims. Even worse, if customer information is stolen, innocent patients are put at risk.
Managed print services secure pharmaceutical prints to ensure customer data is secure. Printers can be safely stored in employee-only access areas, and prints can be held until someone is physically present to enter a code. These steps ensure HIPAA compliance.
4. Improve Customer Experience
Pharmacists can better focus on customers when they’re not bogged down by troubleshooting faulty equipment. If a printer runs out of paper or toner during the workday, customers are going to need to wait longer. This increases the pressure of an already stressful situation troubleshooting faulty equipment.
Managed print services include 24/7 monitoring both through machines and people. If a problem occurs, professional technicians can quickly diagnose and fix the issue. Many issues, like running out of paper or ink, can be proactively solved through continuous monitoring. Regular maintenance can be performed during off-hours, creating a better overall customer experience.
5. Maximize Productivity Through Reliability
The outstanding reliability provided by managed print services maximize productivity. This is done by optimizing both employee and machine tasks. Streamlining the workflow in this way automates every process, including maintenance. It can also manage a variety of devices.
One retail pharmacy often has several printers to print prescriptions, prescription bottle tags, medication guides, and paperwork. Many have on-site pamphlets and marketing printers, as well. Managing documents across all these devices increase the reliability of existing equipment.
6. Deliver High-Quality Prints Across All Media
No matter what is being printed, it needs to have consistently high quality. Receipts, prescription labels, and educational materials all need to look professional for the information to be of any use to consumers. A simple misprint on a label can cause an overdose and loss of license.
With managed print services, all pharmaceutical printing is done with precision and accuracy. No data will be lost due to it being unreadable ever again.
Get Started with Managed Print Services
Managed print services are the best way for the pharmaceutical industry to remain compliant and competitive in the modern economy. While manufacturing, B2B sales, and consumer retail each have unique printing challenges, this fast-paced and high-volume industry can’t afford mistakes.
The pharmaceutical industry is growing – advancements in technology, and medical care are giving more people better access to the medicine they need to treat their ailments. Don’t let printing inefficiencies create more significant problems than your business is solving.
Contact VA Business Systems today to learn how to implement managed print services into all your pharmaceutical printing needs.