Mater Hospital

About the company

The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital is a charitable voluntary hospital. Originally opened in 1861, the hospital holds a unique place in the delivery of healthcare, not only as the main charitable and voluntary general hospital serving Dublin's north inner city, but also providing healthcare to the rest of the country with its national and tertiary services and as a university teaching hospital. The hospital has approximately 600 beds (at full capacity) including day beds.

The challenge

Like most modern hospitals, the Mater has an extensive ICT Network where hospital management is constantly looking at ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. A Lean Six Sigma programme identified printing as an area where savings might be achieved. The project team engaged with OKI as the print partner to gather evidence-based information on the precise current printing solution across the campus. The project identified that there was a large fleet of printers on site consisting of many different makes and models of varying age and condition. The required printing solution was identified as being very complex, as it involved numerous hospital departments to achieve what appeared to be a simple goal.

This comprehensive engagement resulted in a full audit of printing services in the Mater – a complex task as the campus encompasses many different types of buildings from the modern new Whitty wing to the old individual Georgian houses on Eccles Street. Working with the ICT Department, the precise printing needs of hospital users and departments were identified. As a result of this process, the true costs of printing were now understood, namely that large volumes of printing were required as part of hospital processes and that this was a major source of costs.

The solution

The next step in the engagement with OKI was a considered proposal, in which OKI would provide a managed service for the printing requirements identified in the audit. This included a complete refresh of non-performing or non-economically viable printers and a consolidation of printers and model types. In addition, the “PrintFleet” software tool allows remote management of consumables via email alerts and facilitates the complete management of all print devices, which also included the ongoing maintenance of the printers in conjunction with the ICT Department.

In a 24/7/365 hospital environment, maintaining services is critical and the project rollout had to reflect this requirement in a live environment fully conscious of the nature of the service that was being provided. To minimise disruption to the public and staff, a phased approach to the rollout was undertaken at locations and times that facilitated ongoing hospital workflow.

The benefits

Since adopting OKI’s Managed Print Services, the hospital has achieved the following:

Consolidating the number of print devices by 20% and the number of model types by 60%, better reflecting the printing needs of the hospital
Fully optimising consumable management with no waste or obsolescence
Introducing multi-function devices where appropriate
Raising user awareness of printing costs
Refreshing the fleet of print devices
Reducing expensive colour printing by 75%
Undertaking a successful Lean Six Sigma project

The future

Mark Gibbons, Mater ICT Support Manager, says: “The introduction of the managed print service from OKI has improved printing services here at the Mater Hospital. This has been a very worthwhile project and continues to provide an excellent service.”

The OKI Smart Managed Print Services programme encompasses a range of tried and tested methods and tools to establish the current state of an organisation’s print related costs and processes before OKI create a professional bespoke proposal to suit individual customer specific requirements. Our sales and engineering staff work closely with our key partners to offer Managed Print Solutions with maximum customer value.