Choosing Printers for Healthcare Applications

“Quality care depends on quality information. That’s why many hospitals are implementing bar code systems to deliver accurate information in a variety of patient care and clinical settings. Bar codes are important for improving patient safety and process efficiency. Therefore, they should be created with care using dedicated printers that are optimized to provide reliable, accurate bar code output.”

Thermal label printers produce high-quality bar codes for patient wristbands, unit-of-use medication marking, sample and file tracking, prescription labels, and other healthcare applications. When hospitals start planning their first bar code labeling applications, they are often tempted to try to modify their existing office printing systems to do the job. While laser, ink jet, and dot matrix printers can be made to output bar codes, dedicated thermal printers are a much more convenient and cost-effective option.

This white paper will explain why a dedicated thermal printer is the superior choice for bar code label printing in hospitals. The paper will:

• Provide an overview of thermal printing technology;
• Highlight thermal printing advantages for patient care and pharmacy operations;
• Describe the bar code printing capabilities and limitations of thermal, laser, ink jet, and dot matrix
• print technologies;
• Explain how thermal printer networking, connectivity, product design, and other features improve
• productivity of the printer and operator; and
• Illustrate why thermal printers are generally more cost-effective for labeling than other technologies.

(The above is an extract from the White Paper Executive Summary by Zebra Technologies.)

There is a lot to consider when choosing a printer, how your labels will work for you, using bar codes and employing these in real-world applications throughout a healthcare environment.

Click here to download the full white paper by Zebra Technologies. Supported and distributed by Winco ID. For more on labeling and bar code solutions for the healthcare industry, visit us on line.

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