 "It was imperative we select the right infrastructure components the network, the servers, and the HP LaserJet printers we knew in selecting the HP LaserJet 1200N, the printers could handle our current needs easily. And, if in the future, we decide to bring in a new medical records system, we know that the printers have the flexibility to handle whatever we throw at them."
-- Carl Labbadia
Director of Information Systems, Grove Hill Medical Center
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Time waits for no man
"Our focus has always been on providing the very best treatment for our patients," commented Carl Labbadia, Grove Hill's Director of Information Systems (IS). "At times this has meant that our energies have not always been directed at remaining on the leading edge of information technology. For the last 12 years, with attention being paid to other areas of optimizing patient care, we've ran the same legacy billing and appointment management system."
He continued, "Each of our eight locations were connected using a proprietary local area transport protocol and we had over 100 dot-matrix printers, distributed across all of the offices to print patients' Encounter forms. These forms cover standard information, such as name, date of birth, physician's name, and lists of common procedures with associated diagnoses for medical staff to check-off and were printed on two-part, pre-printed stationary."
Encounter forms were created for every patient visit totaling over 5,000 forms each day. "There were multiple disadvantages with the old infrastructure," recalled Labbadia. "The technology had become costly to manage and maintain. Fifteen percent of my technicians' time was spent supporting and repairing the old dot-matrix printers.pre-printed stationary."
"In addition, we had the huge burden of using pre-printed, two-part paper, which was expensive to buy, store and distribute, and it made us really reluctant to make even the smallest changes to the text or format," Labbadia recounted.
To further hasten the inevitable demise of the dot-matrix-based system, the complexity involved in setting up the printers with two-part stationary made people hesitant to use the machines for any other types of printing. Labbadia elaborated, "If somebody wanted to print on plain paper and on multi-part forms, they went and bought another printer to cope with the plain paper output and we ended up having twice as many printers as we really needed."
With the inflexibility, cost and unfriendliness of the legacy print environment, the Grove Hill Medical Center IS team knew that they could make a significant positive impact to the ailing infrastructure with the introduction of a modern print infrastructure built on cost effective technologies.
There has to be a cure
For the purposes of analysis, Labbadia and his staff broke the legacy printing environment down into a series of individual cost items - enabling them to accurately identify the exact costs associated with each component. For example, the cost analysis of the dot-matrix printers included not only the costs of use and maintenance, but also the impact of actually printing, shipping, storing and retrieving the two-part Encounter forms.
"We compared our existing costs with the anticipated investment of implementing a laser-based print solution. The financial comparisons were compellingly in favor of moving to a plain-paper environment," he determined.
The selection of a printer vendor was a very trivial task for Labbadia, he noted, "We immediately turned to HP for the printing hardware. I believe the HP product line is the most cost effective in the market when it comes to laser technology. Then of course there is the reliability - when you think of robust printing, who do you think of first - HP, naturally!"
The IS team purchased and deployed 65 HP LaserJet 1200N printers to comfortably handle the 5,000 to 6,000 pages of throughput that each printer is assigned during an average month. Having decided on an HP LaserJet solution, the search was undertaken for software that would enable users to fully leverage the comprehensive print capabilities and fulfill the complete set of user application requirements - from printing numerous Encounter forms, to creating single custom pieces - all on the same HP printer.
Grove Hill's search zeroed quickly in to Capella Technologies' FormPort Server software solution for HP LaserJet printers. "Given our specifications for a patient management application with varying printed forms, the only company that we could find to meet all of our output software needs was Capella Technologies and its FormPort Server software," remarked Labbadia.
FormPort Server consists of a sophisticated set of tools for customizing and merging raw data into professional-looking forms for direct output to a printer, creating consistent proprietary documents that are immediately ready for distribution.
Things never felt so good
Labbadia observed, "Today, the medical center staff can perform three printing functions that were previously served by individual printers - Encounter forms, all white paper printing and general printing on a single HP LaserJet 1200N printer."
Labbadia always had strongly adhered to a strategy of deploying a robust infrastructure that would be highly adaptive and accommodated the changing dynamics within Grove Hill Medical Center. He explained, "It was imperative we select the right infrastructure components - the network, the servers, and the HP LaserJet printers - we knew in selecting the HP LaserJet 1200N, the printers could handle our current needs easily. And, if in the future, we decide to bring in a new medical records system, we know that the printers have the flexibility to handle whatever we throw at them."
He continued, "In addition, benefits are arising from the HP/Capella solution in previously unexpected areas. For example, we have discovered a significant improvement in our ability to print a variety of label sizes in one printout. Previously, we could only print one label format at a time, now the staff can print a single page of labels for each individual patient - mixing labels such as 'upside-down' type-face to 'wrap' over the top of a chart and standard clinical labels. It's proving to be a tremendously flexible solution."
Challenges
- Outdated dot matrix printing environment was expensive and complicated to maintain
- Specialized two-part stationary heavily restricted use of printers for other purposes
- High costs associated with designing, creating, distributing, storing and retrieving multi-part forms
- Proliferation of non-standardized printers to compensate for inflexibility of dot-matrix units
Solution
- Deployment of 65 HP LaserJet 1200N printers
- Implementation of Capella Technologies' FormPort Server software solution
- Move to plain-white paper for all printing tasks
Results
- Rationalization of printing duties onto single printer versus three in legacy environment
- Robust infrastructure created to facilitate future growth and technology advancements
- Reduced costs for printer support and supplies
- HP Printers and Capella software providing previously unavailable services
Founded in 1947, Grove Hill Medical Center is the largest multi-discipline healthcare clinic in the state of Connecticut. With over 70 physicians, eight locations and 460 employees, the center has a long history of staying on the leading edge of family medicine.
At a glance
Partner: Capella Technologies
Headquarters: Irvine, California
Telephone: (888) 233-4200
URL: www.capellatech.com
Primary business: Capella Technologies specializes in printing solutions that enhance, track and secure document output. Capella Technologies solutions have enabled many corporations to leverage their existing investment in legacy ERP and financial software applications by giving cost-effective laser printers the ability to emulate high-speed line printers.
Thanks to a close and long-standing partnership with Hewlett-Packard, Capella Technologies is consistently on the forefront of this industry, delivering state-of-the-art solutions that help businesses format, manage and secure printer data output.
At a glance
Organization: Grove Hill Medical Center
Location: New Britain, Connecticut
Founded: 1947
Telephone: (860) 224-6200
URL: www.grovehill.com
Primary business: Grove Hill Medical Center believes in offering the total picture in health care services for the whole family - from routine checkups to specific medical problems. Board Certified physicians have been providing the best in family health care since 1947 in the Central Connecticut region - with more than 70 physicians representing 22 key medical specialties from Cardiology to Urology.
For more information on how working with HP can benefit you, contact your local HP service representative, or visit us through the Internet at our world wide web address: http://www.hp.com
2003 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Technical information in this document is subject to change without notice. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
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