Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust overhauled its printer strategy to cut costs of ownership and reduce helpdesk enquiries.
‘As a newly merged trust in 2002 we looked at IT problems, including the huge number of poor-quality printers which were slow, expensive to run and kept breaking down, generating a disproportionate number of calls to the service desk,’ says Hans Solgaard, head of IT at the Trust.
‘A printer should just sit in a corner and work. Our printer strategy was borne out of huge user dissatisfaction.’
Printers are fundamental to hospitals, for example, printing X-rays, prescriptions, ward lists, blood results and sending some 15,000 letters each month.
The Trust conducted an audit of its IT systems, including printers, prior to presenting a business case to its board. It highlighted the huge cost of ownership and inefficiencies associated with printing and how savings could be made and productivity improved.
‘It was important to get backing from the operational committee and the clinical management committee,’ says Solgaard.
The audit uncovered inefficiencies due to split budgets and an absence of centralised IT management. ‘Every department had its own IT budget. Some would insist on buying a colour printer because they were cheap. The fact they were expensive to run didn’t matter as the money for toner and ink came out of the stationery budget,’ says Solgaard.
Multiple IT budgets meant that a huge variety of printers had been purchased over the years. ‘We found 1,800 printers and more than 60 different models. Ninety per cent of the printers were locally attached and only a small number were connected to the network.
‘Also, 90 per cent were out of warranty as printers had been bought locally by departments that commonly bought a printer with a standard 12-month warranty,’ says Solgaard.
The Trust talked to users and department managers to find out their printer requirements and developed a business case.
The organisation decided to standardise on Dell printers and now leases 620 black and white laser printers, to keep down costs where colour is not necessary, and 80 colour laser printers, for reports such as audiology. All are networked and have a four-year onsite warranty.
There was some initial user resistance at having less printers available. It was explained that the new printers were highly resilient and instead of a printer taking up to 20 minutes to print out 30 pages, each Dell printer can print 35 pages per minute. Security was another issue.
‘Users said they had to have their printer nearby for confidentiality, but we reassured them about the new secure print facilities where printing can be held off until users enter their four-digit PIN,’ says Solgaard.
Because the printers are networked, the service desk can identify problems remotely through printer software management, which has reduced support costs. The software also tells the printers to switch off after 10 minutes, and the standard setting is duplex, saving on energy and paper costs.
‘What it costs us to lease the printers plus the cost of toner is less than what we previously paid annually for toner and ink,’ says Solgaard.
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