The Solution

Kyocera was able to leverage its experience in Managed Print Services by quickly analyzing the hospital’s entire document infrastructure and identifying areas where immediate gains could be made. Kyocera implemented a brand new, consolidated fleet of devices (including seven different models) which saw the overall fleet volume cut from approximately 2,000 to 1,300 machines. Kyocera Fleet Services was implemented to offer remote service, and the ability to conduct preventive maintenance helped to drastically reduce downtime.

Moreover, a full Kyocera team is now present on-site year-round to support the hospital’s fleet and managed services. Kyocera even invested time and engineering resources in writing custom drivers that could work with software that required older operating systems. “This kind of solution would not be possible if the organization sourced its equipment from a vendor that wasn’t selling its own technology,” Dr. Chaudry notes. In that case, “if it didn’t have the driver with it – good luck.”

Working with the new devices also represented an immediate improvement in reliability. Previously, Dr. Chaudry would see numerous printing issues escalated to his desk, where he and Mr. Bingham would have to discuss what needed to be done. But despite the challenges of the pandemic, with the Kyocera fleet, he says, “I’ve not had a single escalation on printing—not a single one.” That, he jokes, has kept him from having to take blood pressure pills.

The identity management features Kyocera offers helped the hospital system keep sensitive personal data secure and confidential. When staff are making use of multifunction devices’ scan-to-email capability – a benefit when trying to minimize the use of paper – it’s crucial that patient documents aren’t sent to the wrong person. The Kyocera system alleviates that risk. “The devices recognize who you are, then route the information correctly,” Dr. Chaudry says. The same system means he can go to any of the hospital’s sites, from Alaska to Montana, and scan or print a document there with the same credentials.

The Results

The impact of Kyocera’s strategy was instant. Seattle Children’s has consistently hit 99.9% of its service level agreement targets month over month across the entire printer fleet. The hospital is now on track to projected targeted savings of close to $3 million, while Kyocera has also played a key role in the successful roll-out of their electronic health record system, Epic EMR. All this adds up to the hospital being able to dedicate extra time and resources to deliver the best possible patient care.

Now that its devices are consolidated with Kyocera, Seattle Children’s enjoys responsive support and maintenance. “It’s important to have the right people, processes and technology”, says Mr. Bingham. Kyocera’s people have consistently wanted to help and have acted in the role of a partner rather than simply a technology vendor.

A key element of what it means to be a partner is helping customers work through the unique challenges they face when implementing new technology. For Seattle Children’s, the shift to Kyocera devices happened amid the COVID-19 crisis, when many of its teams were working remotely. Mr. Bingham describes how Kyocera overcame supply-chain constraints to deliver the required equipment and worked on-site to carry out the implementation “in a safe, responsible way” of roughly 1,300 devices.

The Feedback

“Historically, printing is the Achilles’ heel with a medical records system,” says Mr. Bingham. “It’s the area that causes pain.” But working with Kyocera, “it was a non-issue: the printing just worked with our Epic implementation.”

But the partnership is about more than just business. Kyocera, motivated by founder Kazuo Inamori’s injunction to “do the right thing as a human being”, took an interest in the mission of Seattle Children’s and the families it serves, who may not have the capacity to pay for life-saving treatment, or whose difficulties with social determinants of health – such as food and housing security – place further strain on their well-being.

Kyocera not only donated funds to Seattle Children’s to assist its mission, but also supported charity events such as a golf tournament organized by the hospital system and its Housing Solutions for Hope Guild, which focuses on addressing housing insecurity. “They’re not doing these things just because they have a business agreement with us,” says Dr. Chaudry. The relationship the two organizations have forged comes from finding in each other a counterpart similarly driven by principles and a sense of purpose. “As they got to know us, the work we do and why we do it,” notes Dr. Chaudry, “they came forward to say they wanted to help. Kyocera cares about us as an organization. They understand our mission and what we’re trying to do.”