The Datamax Thinking Blog

Electronic patient records can allow medical professionals to help patients better.

You're harried trying to keep your office running all the time. For those of you helping to keep doctor's (or other medical offices) humming; you have the additional concerns of helping those who aren't feeling well or worried about their health.

The last thing you need is anything that slows down your doctors or makes your patients wait longer than they need to. And with regulations in healthcare in near-constant flux, doctors are spending more time on documentation for regulations than on seeing patients.

Anything you can do to create more doctor/patient face time is going to make both doctor and patient happier.

Paper slows you down. Use your copier to speed up your work.

How many times in a week do you look for a document on your desk thinking “I just put it over here . . . “?

You might think that's only a few minutes each time, no big deal. Those minutes can add up to hours looking for paper-based files. As busy as you are, can you afford to spend your time looking for information that you could have at your fingertips?

How many digital copiers and/or printers does your office really need? Ask yourself a few of these questions to find out.

Granted, this title is a little silly. It's a bit like the question “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?”

The answer is, of course, the world may never know.

Or, another light bulb joke:

How many copier sales people does it take to screw in a light bulb?

5.

One to hold the light bulb, the other four to turn the ladder.

Improved processes won't just save your company money, they'll also save you time – and who couldn't use more time?

It's the second week of the new year and you're already as busy as ever. Most of you reading this are responsible for keeping your office running – making decisions and researching technology improvements and “simply” ensuring everyone is working together smoothly.

Process improvements (such as automated workflows and using digital copiers to scan paper to digital for easy retrieval) will of course make the business more efficient and effective, but what about you? I'm going to write about more of the dollars and cents return on investment value of business process improvement in a future post. I've already touched on some of the pro arguments in these posts (Throw Your Law Firm a Productivity Lifeline – 5 Reasons to Automate Your Workflows; Using Your Copier to Streamline Your Legal Workflow; and 10 Questions to Ask About Your Document Workflow). For this post, I'm going to focus on a few ways improving business processes will make YOUR life easier – you deserve it.

Happy New Year from the Datamax Thinking Blog!

Thanks for stopping by during the Holidays. I hope you've enjoyed reading these posts and much as I've (usually) enjoyed writing them. Here are the six most popular Datamax Texas posts for all of 2016. Enjoy and learn for the first time or refresh your memory – read on.

Click on the following titles to read the posts.

Most businesses don't know what they don't know when it comes to printing and copying.

Getting the right mix of office equipment is hard for companies. I've been writing recently about the value of assessments and how they help drive good business decisions when it comes to technology selection.

As the year winds down and another is soon to begin, now is a perfect time for thinking about your plans for next year. Do you ever sit down and think about how you could be doing things better, how you could be printing for less?

Only taking the time to plan will get your office in the shape you need it to be to do the best you can for your customers.

Protected health information could be more likely to be breached than digital records. Here are some tips to keep that information secure.

I've written about HIPAA compliance from a few angles recently; copier hard drives, restricting and monitoring access to the copier, and using document management software or an EHR to help keep patient records secure.

I haven't written about paper yet. And as much as many of us might like to go 100% digital in our business processes, most of us aren't there yet. And I know when I go to the doctor, I still see the color-coded manila folders containing patient files on the sliding file cabinets behind the reception desk.

In 2012, there were more breaches involving medical records on paper covered by HIPAA than electronic records – 45 from mid-May to mid-June. “Hacking” information doesn't just happen to digital information. Paper records and electronic records need to be treated the same – don't forget about the paper!

When it comes to identifying business needs and how to achieve them with technology; you need a proven process. Here's ours.

We're going to help you discover yourself.

I know, that sounds weird coming from a copier dealer and managed network services company. I feel a little like a self-help guru typing that. 

“We've got IT covered” is how we like to put it. That can sound so insufferably smug. However, we do know what we're doing and we know that we can help you.

However, I understand the skepticism. You're worried that we're just going to sell you what we sell – regardless of if it's a good fit or not.

You can ignore change issues when introducing new technology and fail. Or you can focus on managing changes and training everyone on the new technology and processes and succeed.

People hate to change.

Change is hard. If you've ever tried to break a bad habit or start a healthy new one (we're all starting to think about resolutions for next year, right?); you know exactly what I'm talking about.

When it's time to improve your business' processes by adding new technology – anything from new process management software to CRM to digital copiers – changing employees' existing habits can be hard.

Do You Have Any Clue What You Need? Digital Copiers, Document Management, and Managed Networks

“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

If you've spent any time on our website, you know we place a high value on assessments – we offer one on just about every page!