Large Midwest Health Care Provider Pinpoints $600,000 in Annual Output Savings with MSI

In late 2004 an Upper Midwest - based health care organization with 10,000 employees and 35 clinics was moving forward with an initiative to reduce the number of server platforms from 5 down to 2 in order to consolidate various resources.

"Considering 1-3% of an organization's revenue goes to print and output costs, we considered the MSI assessment an essential tool to getting us to a healthier bottom line." - Customer

With multiple locations, providers, specialists and physicians, there was a significant need for maintaining consistent patient, physician and administrative information and finding the most cost-effective means to manage output such as statements, patient records, and contracts. Like many health care organizations, the provider has multiple distributed network printing devices. Specifically, there are 1200 distributed printers, 192 copiers, and an estimated 300 - 500 fax machines. These numbers do not include the organization's three individual data centers.

The Challenge

The reduction in server platforms forced the organization to consider the ramifications of its print and output across the enterprise. They provide treatment and coverage to more than 635,000 members with physicians and employees in 52 locations dedicated to disease management and prevention, innovative inpatient and outpatient services, hospice, pharmacy, health improvement, research and medical education.

The proliferation of output devices and three data centers resulted in a loss of control over output, an outdated print management engine, and concern over the output cost. They lacked uniform print management and archiving processes that could be leveraged across the entire organization. Worse, they had no idea of the daily, monthly or annual costs dedicated to output.

Initial concerns regarding the output environment included a production print management software package written for a DEC VMS environment. Built in-house, it was not designed to support disparate departments in remote clinics and locations for future use; it served only as an isolated application. The organization needed to consider two options - either rewrite the print management software or consider an optional software from an outside vendor.

Another challenge was that existing processes meant pre-printing thousands of forms months before they were needed. Charges incurred from storing and transporting pre-printed forms from building-to-building and floor-to-floor to complete the printing, binding, stuffing and postage process were costly. Further, with regards to contracts, amendments and payment schedules were consistently added by making copies from disparate locations.

Other concerns included the existing postage system whose limitations often required postage to be separated and completed at two locations. In addition 69,252 bills needed to be hand stuffed on a monthly basis due to their size and insertion of a return envelope. This often got in the way of the contract distribution process, leading to additional inefficiencies. HIPAA requires that proper processes be in place for printed documents - including printer location, filing and disposal. They turned to MSI for help.

MSI was contacted to provide a full enterprise assessment and present a clear understanding of the advantages associated with each of the options available. Initial findings revealed the documents were being handled by processes all over the enterprise - some generated from Windows, some from AIX, and some from other sources. The non-heterogeneous environment presented a challenge in addressing output management from an enterprise perspective.

After an initial information gathering study, MSI moved forward with the next phase, which included:

1. Determining the total cost of print
2. Building a roadmap
3. Conducting a 'buy rather than build' comparison
4. An analysis of vendors in specific output categories
5. Setting forth final vendor recommendations

The MSI Solution

One of MSI's recommendations after analyzing the output environment included implementing an enterprise archiving solution. This included a distributed print management component that covered all non-data center printing/output. To ensure a quality, streamlined solution for the client, vendor rankings were based on overall quality in support of the organization's unique situation, not cost.

To streamline the management of output for each location, MSI also recommended the creation of an enterprise output management system (EOMS), in which all communications would have multiple channel delivery options. Before communications are sent to printers for hard copy output, they would be archived on a central server for future use. This central server would also be conditioned for different environments, such as html or xml and would allow for documents to be electronically distributed if needed.

MSI also recommended consolidating the three individual data centers into a single data center for maximum productivity. All production-based output jobs could be directed to data center printers and service center copiers. Intelligent document routing would automatically route and schedule all output needs. The move to 1 large print environment meant bottom line savings could amount to going from 6 to 3 shifts per day, leaving a cost savings of 3 full-time employees (FTEs) annually.

Also during the MSI assessment, MSI noticed there were 2 binding systems. The binding systems were attached to the industrial printers but actually hindered the speed at which documents could be bound and finished. By separating the binding systems, throughput would increase and the organization could consolidate to a single printer, reducing the time it takes to complete jobs and freeing up much needed floor space for other tasks.

The recommendations, guaranteed to save time and money by maximizing resources, were broken into three categories:

Print Management. With MSI's solution, streamlined print management would allow for all production jobs to be directed to data center printers, service center copiers and distributed printers. The data center would receive jobs from multiple sources and share printers between host and LAN applications, using AIX, Windows, and other platforms. Now supporting a heterogeneous environment, output would be produced in a number of data streams, using Post Script, PCL, DJDE and AFP. For large duplication requests, intelligent document routing and scheduling would decrease costs and offer a more productive environment.

Document Management. The enterprise document management system would allow all employees, regardless of department, to view, share, reprint, distribute and archive reports from any application and any location without having to transport and store multiple copies of the reports. The recommended document management solution would support Oracle and Microsoft SQL server and have multiple platform support from Windows, IBM AIX, and OS/390.

Forms Creation. The forms creation tools would allow application users and programmers to create complex forms without specialized programming training. The tool would have a GUI front-end, 'what you see is what you get' form display during creation, allow testing of forms on dissimilar printers and greatly simplify the form production process, reducing man-hours and specialize the programming.

Benefits

The print management benefits will allow the health care provider to move away from device dependency and support a heterogeneous print environment. The balanced printer workload means improved resource utilization. The on-screen proofing options for print on-demand jobs will speed the production process.

The recommendations proposed by MSI have many benefits, including reduction in paper output, storage space, delivery and handling. With the solution in place, the thousands of employees at hundreds of locations can now retrieve reports and documents of any age, type or characteristic. Employees do not have to re-run applications in order to retrieve reprints. The problem of misplaced paper reports and misfiled printed information would be illuminated and further avoid security issues.

The assessments and recommendations made by MSI would ensure significant savings, increased efficiency and increased customer satisfaction. With the proposed solution, the organization could go from 6 shifts daily to just 3, resulting in a savings in regarding FTEs in the department. The updated production environment has the ability to save the organization $100,000 annually. By installing an enterprise archiving solution the organization could potentially see an additional $500,000 in annual savings.