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Benefits of Line Matrix Printing for Medical, Clinical and Reference Laboratories

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The following offers an explanation of the critical printing elements required in laboratory testing facilities and demonstrates solutions for employing Printronix and TallyGenicom line matrix printers.

Challenges

Maintaining records from testing done in a laboratory facilities commonly involves the use of multi-part forms. Dispersing these forms to the appropriate location, client, physician, insurance provider, or hospital is a critical process.

For labs that collect human blood and urine specimens, the use of the multipart form is to track “Chain of Custody”, or CCF, for the specimen taken. This generally references a document or paper trail showing the seizure, custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposal of physical and electronic evidence of a human specimen test. Information is added on the CCF as the test specimen travels throughout the testing process, and this provides for specimen integrity and accountability of a test sample. The paperwork and testing supplies needed to support the CCF’s trail are crucial for verification before turnover to the respective laboratory testing facility.

Laboratory testing companies print millions of forms for CCF, invoicing, samples and collections bill of lading in their offices across the globe each year. With so many forms being printed every day, laboratory testing facilities are challenged to find a way to maintain records in an orderly and accurate fashion while keeping costs low.

Many laboratory test companies also employ multiple offices, and remote offices may only have lab technicians and accountants, but no IT personnel to assist in printer support or issues. Offices with lack of support run the risk of having low consumable reserves or lack of back-up printers which cause downtime when problems arise. These issues can lead to the inability to take collections and cause patient issues or non-compliance. When a location needs to print upwards of 4,000 forms a day, downtime can prove to be a costly issue.

Today there are many printing options on the market for these companies to choose from, their challenge is how to choose the best option to support their workload and environment.

Implementing a Solution

Printronix and TallyGenicom line matrix printers are the most effective and cost efficient solution on the market to fulfill the needs of the fast paced laboratory testing industry. The ability of laboratories to print clearly and legibly on up to 6 page multi-part forms provides cost savings and cuts downtime by eliminating the excessive use and replacement of laser and serial consumables, like ink and toner, and enables companies to avoid the time consuming task of printing multiple copies of the same form. The chore of keeping track of duplicate single sheet paperwork and making sure all forms are signed and distributed to the necessary parties is minimized.

Line Matrix printers make form tracking simple. The multi-part document allows the lab, insurance, CCF and patient information to be placed on one multiple part page and then dispersed to the necessary parties with ease. Errors are decreased, paperwork moves faster, and integrity and accountability of samples remains intact. Line matrix printers are not only reliable, having no printer paper jams and significantly less downtime, but they are also fast. With the ability to print up to 2,000 lines per minute, offices can quickly print all necessary forms and keep their flow of patients moving.

A crucial benefit of Printronix and TallyGenicom line matrix printers for laboratory testing companies with multiple locations is the inclusion of PrintNet Enterprise. PrintNet Enterprise is a remote management utility that provides superior control over networked printers, allowing for full remote printer fleet control via the use of a virtual operations panel and real-time dashboard. An IT operator can easily access configuration settings, updates and printer resources and download them to multiple printers simultaneously or receive email and SMS alerts if a printer goes down, or is disconnected, and address the problem from anywhere in the world.

Conclusion

Using Printronix and TallyGenicom line matrix printers in the laboratory testing industry is the smart choice. The durability, reliability, speed and mutli-part form capabilities provided with a line matrix printer enable users to deliver the best service possible to their customers to enable regulatory compliance, and to meet the daily demands of their mission critical printing.


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