Case Study

Modernizing print infrastructure for an Ohio hospital system

Helping a regional healthcare provider improve security, simplify IT management and support better patient care.

Optimize & PrintLake Business5 min read

An Ohio hospital system was managing thousands of printers and multifunction devices across multiple facilities and clinical departments. Over the years, working with a reactive vendor had created an environment that was difficult to manage and increasingly difficult to secure.

Many devices were approaching end of life, security updates were inconsistent, and the IT team spent valuable time maintaining print infrastructure instead of focusing on higher-value initiatives that directly supported patient care. The organization needed a more proactive approach to reduce overall costs, strengthen cybersecurity, support healthcare compliance, and prepare its print environment for continued digital transformation.

Thousandsof devices standardized
Seamless distributionprint & release
Protect patient dataEMR connection / HIPAA compliance
The challenge

The organization needed more than new equipment. It needed a proactive partner that understood both healthcare operations and secure technology infrastructure.

  • Thousands of outdated and hard to manage devices
  • Lowering print costs while reinvesting it in their digital transformation
  • Inconsistent firmware and security updates
  • IT time consumed by routine print maintenance
  • Pressure to strengthen security and HIPAA compliance
  • A need to improve efficiency without disrupting care
The approach

Understanding the environment first

Rather than recommending hardware immediately, Lake Business began with a comprehensive assessment — working alongside hospital leadership and IT staff to understand how information moved through the organization.

The team reviewed print and scan workflows, inventoried devices across departments and facilities, identified aging or unsupported equipment, evaluated firmware and security vulnerabilities, and reviewed compliance requirements. That gave leadership a clear picture of where risks existed and where investment would deliver the greatest value.

The solution

A secure, standardized environment

Based on the assessment, Lake designed a modern print environment built around security, centralized management and ease of administration:

  • Standardized and reduced multifunction devices across the organization
  • Secure print release using employee badge authentication
  • Centralized print-management software
  • Enterprise-wide device monitoring
  • Automated firmware and security updates
  • Secure scanning and e-prescription printing

Instead of managing devices individually, the IT team could now monitor and administer the entire print infrastructure through a single platform — firmware, security policies and device health managed centrally, significantly reducing effort while improving security.

Secure print workflows required staff to authenticate before confidential documents were released, eliminating unattended printouts of protected health information and creating an audit trail of who printed what, when and where.

“The biggest benefit wasn’t simply replacing equipment — it was giving IT time back. Routine, device-by-device maintenance became centralized and largely automated.”

The outcome

By partnering with Lake Business, the Ohio hospital system was able to:

  • Standardize and simplify its print infrastructure across multiple facilities
  • Secure and reduce costs with Rx printing by moving to a digital platform
  • Strengthen HIPAA compliance efforts
  • Centralize management of print devices
  • Automate firmware and security updates
  • Reduce IT administrative workload
  • Make the most of print investments while leveraging new technologies to increase efficiencies
  • Free IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives

The result was an environment that better protected patient information while making everyday workflows easier for clinicians and administrative staff — and let the hospital’s IT team focus on the work that matters most.

Work with Lake

See what this could look like for your organization.

Lake Business evaluates your entire workflow, not just the equipment, to design a solution that matches how you actually work.