The Challenge
Academic medical centers are document-intensive environments. Clinical staff print sensitive patient records, medication orders, lab results, and care plans — often at high volumes and across departments and multiple campuses.
For UCI Health, this reality created a perfect storm of risk: unattended print jobs sat in output trays, potentially exposing Protected Health Information (PHI). In addition, staff often scanned documents manually and routed them through inefficient, error-prone processes. Even getting a scanned document directly into a patient’s Epic chart required multiple manual steps.
As UCI Health scaled its operations to support a growing hospital network, the cracks in these processes widened. The team realized we weren’t just dealing with inefficiencies—we were facing operational risk that could no longer be solved through workarounds. We needed a systemic solution.
The Solution
UCI Health partnered with LRS Output Management, a print management company, to modernize the way we handle paper. Working together, we designed an end-to-end, secure, intelligent document workflow built on our Ricoh multifunction printer fleet. The result three-part solution transformed how our IT team and thousands of clinical end users interact with paper documents every day.
Part 1: Secure Print Release — Protecting PHI at the Output Tray
Today, Windows and Epic-generated print jobs are held in a secure queue until the user physically authenticates at a Ricoh printer by tapping their employee badge on the integrated badge reader. No job prints until the right person is standing in front of the right printer. This single change eliminated unattended PHI exposure at output trays across our campuses—a meaningful HIPAA risk reduction that also reduced paper waste from abandoned print jobs.
Part 2: Scan to OneDrive—Streamlining Staff Workflows
Staff can now tap their badge, scan documents, and have content routed directly to their personal OneDrive — securely and automatically. No more email attachments, manual uploads, and shared drives with overly broad permissions. The scanning capability supports everything from administrative workflows to clinical documentation, while keeping data within our governed Microsoft 365 environment.
Part 3: Scan to Epic — Closing the Loop on the Patient Record
Perhaps the most impactful capability is that staff can now scan documents directly into a patient’s Epic chart using barcode stickers affixed to physical paperwork. Staff place a barcode on the document, tap in, scan, and the content lands precisely in the correct patient record automatically. This eliminates manual indexing steps, reduces the risk of misfiling, and keeps clinical documentation timely and accurate.
The Impact
This initiative sits at the intersection of patient safety, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance — the three pillars that matter most in academic medical center IT. Here’s what we achieved:
- Reduced PHI exposure risk with badge-authenticated print release across all campuses
- Eliminated abandoned print jobs, reducing both waste and compliance exposure
- Accelerated document intake into Epic, supporting timely and accurate clinical records
- Unified workflows across Windows, Epic, OneDrive, and Ricoh hardware—no custom one-off solutions
- Built a scalable platform that’s ready to expand without re-architecture as UCI Health continues to grow its hospital network
Why It Matters to UC Health System Peers
What we built at UCI Health is not unique to our institution’s complexity — it’s a model that any UC Health campus can adapt. The combination of LRS Output Management’s middleware expertise, Epic integration capabilities, and Microsoft 365 alignment means the solution is built on platforms already in use across UC. The barrier to replication is low, and the payoff for patient safety and compliance is immediate.
Looking Ahead
We’re already exploring what comes next, including centralized print analytics to help optimize fleets, mobile print capabilities for clinical leadership, and tighter integration with our enterprise document governance strategy.
Contact
Corey C Flood
Director, Client Services
Information Technology Services
University of California, Irvine Health
Danny Hadib
Head of Technology Portfolio
Information Technology Services
University of California, Irvine Health
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