Technology is rapidly transforming healthcare delivery, from AI diagnostics and cloud-based EHRs to telehealth services and real-time monitoring. But one thing that hasn’t changed much is how we print. Estimates suggest that the average U.S. health system prints between 8 million to 20 million pages annually, while large health networks with multiple hospitals and outpatient facilities can easily exceed 100 million pages a year.
Despite efforts toward digital transformation, printing remains a significant burden on healthcare providers due to regulatory requirements, patient documentation, billing, and administrative workflows. Outdated legacy print infrastructure is creating a gap between digital innovation and physical documentation, putting essential patient care and compliance processes at risk.
When printing is a forgotten part of the tech stack, it becomes a weak link in the entire healthcare system.
What’s at stake for healthcare printing?
Between patient forms, prescriptions, referrals, and treatment plans, paper isn’t going away in healthcare any time soon. Additionally, many of these documents contain Protected Health Information (PHI) as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which mandates strict control over the creation, storage, and transmission of patient data.
Unsecured print workflows create compliance and security risks for sensitive patient information. A single page left unattended on a print tray could lead to a HIPAA violation, hefty fines, and considerable reputational damage. Limited visibility into the print ecosystem also increases the risk of a cyberattack, which can be devastating: a recent IBM report put the average cost of a data breach in healthcare at almost $11 million, underscoring the critical importance of safeguarding your print infrastructure.
Managing an extensive network of printers, print queues, and drivers can quietly drain resources, and becomes even more complicated where staff use a mix of personal and organizational devices, or are on the move between hospitals, campuses, clinics, and labs. The priority in healthcare should be focusing on patient outcomes, not troubleshooting printers.
The hidden weak links in print infrastructure
Printing is often an overlooked vulnerability in a healthcare organization’s broader cybersecurity strategy, with the potential to expose confidential data and create compliance risks. One major issue is unclaimed print jobs: documents left on trays or in shared print rooms. This is compounded by a lack of user authentication at printers, allowing anyone to print or pick up someone else’s document, whether intentionally or accidentally.
Print servers and endpoints are another common blind spot. These are often unmonitored, making them prime targets for cybercriminals looking to gain unauthorized access to a network. Additionally, many healthcare organizations lack adequate audit trails or detailed logs of print activity, making it difficult to trace individual print jobs – a critical gap following a data breach.
The challenges are amplified in a decentralized print environment, where each hospital, clinic, and outpatient center has its own print setup and policies. Without a unified print management system, these inconsistencies and vulnerabilities make it far more complex to secure patient records and maintain compliance with HIPAA regulations.
What needs to change: closing the gaps
To address the gaps in their print infrastructure, modern healthcare organizations must adopt robust print management strategies. Secure print release is essential: with this feature, print jobs are held in a queue until the user authenticates at the device with a badge, PIN code, or other sign-on. This prevents sensitive information from being left unattended, lost, or stolen, ensuring the documents are only printed when the authorized user is physically present.
To achieve HIPAA compliance, healthcare organizations need to be able to track who is printing what. Monitoring print activity through audit trails and reports helps spot anomalies early, protecting against unauthorized access and data leaks. Print room controls add an extra layer of security by restricting access and enforcing proper disposal of printed documents.
A cloud-based print management system offers centralized oversight, which is especially valuable for healthcare networks spread across multiple sites, simplifying administration and ensuring consistent print security. Integrating print systems with identity and access management (IAM) aligns printing with broader IT policy, an approach that strengthens HIPAA compliance.
To safeguard patient information, healthcare providers must recognize print management as a critical part of their overall cybersecurity strategy. But the benefits go beyond data protection, positively impacting organizational efficiency, environmental targets, and the business bottom line.
The opportunity: turning print from liability to asset
An optimized print environment enables seamless workflows that support healthcare professionals in their day-to-day work. Rather than an afterthought, printing becomes a controlled, efficient, and secure part of the healthcare system’s overall digital strategy.
With centralized print management, IT admins gain end-to-end visibility and control over the print environment, administering the entire fleet of printers, devices, and users from a single dashboard. Automated print queues and driver updates minimize the need for manual intervention, easing the workload of IT teams.
Better print management also translates to less waste and lower costs, by eliminating excessive and unnecessary printing. Administrators can set and enforce smarter printing strategies, such as default duplex (double-sided) printing, restrictions on color printing, and print quotas for high-usage departments. Reducing consumption of paper, toner, and power not only creates cost savings, but also supports sustainability goals.
Remote and mobile printing capabilities ensure secure access to patient information, from any location and device. This frees up clinical staff from chasing paperwork so they can spend more time focusing on patient care.
Time to bring print into the transformation conversation
Where time, budgets, and resources are always under pressure, healthcare leaders can no longer afford to ignore print. It’s time to treat it as the critical, high-risk function that it is, one with significant implications for data security and compliance, organizational efficiency, and patient outcomes.
When managed strategically, print can support smoother workflows, reduce waste, and protect patient data. Modern print management is now basic operational hygiene and fundamental to running a safe, responsive, and effective healthcare system.
Mat Buttrey
Mat Buttrey is Senior Product Manager & Strategic Lead - Healthcare at PaperCut.
