DISCOVERING BESTAT BANNER HEALTH®

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS: Leadership and adaptive culture at Banner Health Pharos technology, expertise and holistic approach

Health Care Case Study

Healthcare organizations can save millions of dollars each year and apply these savings to improving patient outcomes.

Healthcare organizations face many critical business issues today. Chief among them are increasing operational expenses and HIPAA privacy and security compliance challenges. Imagine being able to address both of these challenges together and achieve clear, measurable results.

You probably haven’t given much thought to the cost of printing in your organization, but the reality is, printing is often one of the largest expense categories in healthcare. As a result, leaders in healthcare are seeking proven solutions that prevent overspending on office printing, clinical and production printing, and print that is externally sourced. With help from Pharos, healthcare organizations are able to re-direct millions in savings to their primary mission—patient care.

One of these leaders is Banner Health, a nationally recognized Integrated Health Network with 28 facilities and over 47,000 employees. Banner is committed to making a difference in people’s lives through excellent patient care. They also apply this drive to proactively managing their operational and “back office” expenses so that they can continue to expand their patient care services. Banner brought Pharos and its industry-leading technology and services to the table to help them save millions of dollars each year.

HERE’S HOW WE ACHIEVED THIS TOGETHER.

Request for Information (RFI) In 2010, Banner was faced with an outdated printer fleet and enterprise-wide printing costs that seemed excessive. Like all healthcare networks and hospitals, Banner was seeking ways to save wherever possible and direct those savings to patient-facing services. Jeff Buehrle, VP & CFO for the University Medicine Division at Banner Health, worked with Banner’s IT leaders to issue an RFI to qualify a Managed Print Services (MPS) vendor. They did their homework and added a wildcard to the mix, a company that doesn’t sell printers but knows a lot about them; an expert print solutions firm with twenty years of experience creating secure document workflows, applying change management practices, designing custom print solutions, establishing cost-effective procurement guidelines, and saving companies a lot of money on their printing.

Six firms replied to the RFI: five printer manufacturers, and Pharos. We approached the RFI holistically, focusing on solving the biggest problem possible. Our proposal went further than the original request and included office and clinical print, internal production, and externally sourced print. We outlined over $25 million in potential savings—more than twice the amount of the projections in the competing proposals. In August 2010, Banner Health engaged Pharos and we went to work right away.

Low-hanging Fruit We installed Pharos Blueprint® Enterprise across the entire Banner network to achieve a full discovery of all devices, users, and printing activity. Rather than perform a partial discovery and use that data to extrapolate savings across the enterprise, we emphasized the importance of capturing the whole picture as accurately and objectively as possible. Once the enterprise

baseline was established and agreed to, we analyzed the data and completed a comprehensive print strategy that included a user-centric volume reduction plan that would save Banner over $30 million, even more than we had initially projected.

Pharos worked with Banner’s marketing and communications team to launch the “Do Your Part | Print Smart” program, which kept all employees informed about the initiative, shared program goals, and set expectations. Then we identified and went after the low-hanging fruit—the easiest and fastest ways for Banner to begin to realize savings. To date, these Print Smart efforts have helped Banner achieve a total color volume reduction of over 50% across all sites. Given that the cost of color printing is 3-5 times more expensive than black & white, (and sometimes much more) this reduction in non-essential color printing made a significant early impact on the program’s ROI.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

By focusing on reducing demand for office print and then gradually working our way into clinical areas, Banner was able to “save while we solve.”

We confronted the demand side of print in phases, focusing on Banner’s corporate and administrative offices first. This allowed Banner leadership to role model their future state prior to introducing change to the medical centers. Also, clinical process print is typically a more time-consuming challenge because it involves systems integration and process re-engineering. By focusing on reducing demand for office print and then gradually working our way into clinical areas, Banner was able to “save while we solve.”

To change employee printing habits, reduce unnecessary volume and significantly improve security and HIPAA privacy, we rolled out our Secure Release technology in Banner’s corporate and administrative offices. This solution requires employees to use their ID card to authenticate at any Pharos-enabled printer to release their documents, ensuring that all printing is secure and confidential, in compliance with HIPAA and PHI policy. We also leveraged Blueprint reports to identify volume outliers and continued to educate employees

and set expectations via Print Smart communications. In the first year of the program, Print Smart initiatives helped Banner reduce corporate office printing volume by more than 40% and realize a positive return on investment in less than nine months. And the wins for Banner kept coming.

Highly Engaged Leadership Banner’s cross-functional leadership team has been critical to the success of the program. Every month, they are engaged and invested. They lead by example.

When we revealed that personal printer use throughout the enterprise was a significant source of expense and that with Pharos Secure Release in place it was an entirely unnecessary expense, senior management was the first to give up their desktop printers and adopt Print Smart practices—

again leading by example. With this committed leadership and Banner’s culture of standardization, employees across the enterprise quickly embraced the change and their role in making a difference at Banner Health. Print Smart communications helped people understand that every decision to print has a cost that extends beyond the dollar value of the printing transaction; that every page not printed represents an immediate savings that ultimately reduces Banner’s equipment footprint and contributes to cost savings and sustainability goals.

All printing is secure and confidential, in compliance with HIPAA and PHI policy.

Every month, they are engaged and invested. They lead by example.

We were clear in our vision to be responsible to the environment, adopt a ‘mindful print’ culture and drive costs down wherever possible. We led by example and committed firmly to our vision of savings and success.

A CLEAR VISION “ “

- Jeff Buehrle, VP & CFO

A Phased ApproachIn the next phase, we implemented our Toner Savings technology. This intelligent toner reduction solution is invisible to employees—they experience no appreciable difference in print quality, while Banner realized an immediate 35% reduction in toner usage. Today, this software is fully deployed across the entire Banner Health system. To date, it has enabled Banner to save more than $600,000 in toner costs, which translates to 5,000 fewer toner cartridges purchased and the elimination of 40 metric tons of greenhouse gasses. Banner continues to capture an average of $25,000 in savings every month with this technology alone.

The Print Smart program continued to produce results and make printing personal. After the successful rollout of our Toner Savings technology, we enabled our Policy Print solution in all non-clinical areas. This pop-up messaging feature of Blueprint Enterprise informs employees whenever their print job exceeds certain thresholds, giving them an opportunity to make more cost-effective choices.

Again, Print Smart communications played an important role to set expectations and educate employees about better printing habits. This communications effort and the automated pop-up messages immediately improved printing behavior across the organization, driving print volume down still further and enabling Banner’s cost savings to reach new heights. Blueprint tracks the rate of employee compliance with printing policies. With some policies, 65% of Banner employees changed their printing habits to align with Print Smart goals.

Exceeding Expectations Upon seeing these strong early results, Banner wanted to accelerate and expand the program. They asked us to go full-speed ahead toward the goal of solving the biggest problem possible. The Pharos team worked on-site at Banner to analyze data and implement the strategy, design employee communications and reports, and apply change management techniques. This team designed the strategy for Banner’s fleet refresh and managed its implementation, successfully optimizing and standardizing Banner’s device fleet across all locations and more effectively leveraging the full capacity of Banner’s multi-function devices. These asset optimization efforts helped Banner bring their total device count down an average of 55% across all optimized sites.

Process ExpertiseBanner also tapped into Pharos expertise beyond traditional office printing, namely internal production operations and externally sourced print. We analyzed the cost profile and usage patterns associated with Banner’s five internal print shops and consulted with their supply chain staff to develop a consolidation plan. Based on Pharos’ recommendations, Banner successfully merged these five internal print shops

Banner reduced corporate office printing volume by more than 40% and realized a positive return on investment in less than nine months.

into one and directed high-volume office print and all specialized print to it. This enabled them to eliminate redundant and expensive equipment, re-assign certain devices to high-volume offices, and achieve a 50% reduction in total in-house production costs.

The Print Smart team also conducted a comprehensive assessment of all externally sourced print and developed a strategy for Banner to save between 25% – 35% on their external printing costs. This process involved supply chain management optimization and improved sourcing processes.

When Banner decided to refresh their device fleet across the enterprise, Pharos managed the strategy, the RFP process, and the design and implementation phases, helping Banner to discover and achieve the best fleet solution for their unique needs.

As Banner continued to save, Pharos continued to solve. Typically, the most challenging aspects of print solution deployments in healthcare networks are the integration with clinical systems and the re-engineering of business processes in print-intensive clinical areas. The Print Smart team is streamlining clinical print workflows, digitizing document-intensive processes, and integrating Pharos software with Banner’s electronic health record system.

All of these efforts have resulted in continually reduced print volumes on a per-user basis, significant reductions in waste and operating expenses, improved end-user convenience, more cost-effective sourcing, and employees who are more mindful of their printing habits. After five years, Banner Health had already realized more than $16 million in savings of the $30 million plan.

This successful partnership continues today. The Print Smart team continues to optimize print-intensive workflows in many critical areas, ensuring that each year’s cost savings and volume reduction goals are met and that Banner’s investment continues to pay dividends toward its primary mission—improving patient outcomes.

Banner’s investment continues to pay dividends toward its primary mission—improving patient outcomes.

Banner wouldn’t be where we are today without Pharos and our Print Smart team. Everyone is committed to the program and directly vested in its continual success.

JEFF BUEHRLE, VP & CFO

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LET’S MAKE PRINT THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

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After five years, Banner Health had already realized more than $16 million in savings.