Case Study

Hospital Saves $145K/Year with ARO Print and Mail Management Services

At one large hospital, the print center and mailroom used to be the lowest-rated service department in the facility. Most of the print and copy production work was being sent offsite—at 60% higher costs—because the center had a poor service reputation throughout the key departments. Fortunately, the hospital’s printer fleet management partner knew the right experts to turn to for help transforming the print center and mailroom operations: ARO.

Client Snapshot

Full-service, 388-bed acute care center in southern California

Serving 200,000 patients per year

Due to poor performance, prior vendor for print center and mail management services replaced by ARO

Print needs include high-end digital color, wide format, large mailers, binding/finishing, graphic design, and more

The Challenge

Reputation for Poor Service throughout the Organization

Key departments didn’t trust the print center to produce jobs to specifications, nor did they trust the mailroom to keep track of mail or deliver lab tests and other crucial items within strict time limits. Some of the top problems included:

Inefficient Mail Movement

Internal customers were frustrated with slow movement of mail, packages and lab materials across the system: items that should have been delivered in hours were taking days or weeks.

Work Sent Off Site

Although the print center had equipment with all the right functionality to meet customer requirements, most departments’ lack of trust in the center’s services still led them to send jobs to outside vendors, costing the hospital thousands of dollars per year.

The ARO Approach

Instilling Service Excellence and Efficiency

Recognizing our reputation for transforming operations, the hospital’s printer fleet management partner contracted with ARO as the new print center and mailroom management provider.

Key Solutions

Courier Routes

ARO introduced three daily courier routes covering all 32 hospital locations (including out-patient, forensics, surgery centers, etc.). We also established an on-demand courier service to support lab deliveries and other urgent requests that didn’t align with regular schedules.

Printing on Demand

To help accommodate the hospital’s evolving branding, we shifted services toward more of a print-on-demand model. That way, the print center holds less branded inventory that might need to be discarded due to brand updates.

Full-Service, High-Quality Print and Copy Capability

ARO instituted services including:

Digital color and wide-format production, as well as binding/finishing and graphic design services
First response support for printer maintenance
Paper ordering and delivery to all departments

Results

A Rapid Rise to the #2 Top-Rated Department

With mail moving efficiently and more print work being done conveniently in house, ARO’s improvements led to a dramatic rise in customer-reported satisfaction levels compared to the previous vendor.

$145,000 Saved Per Year

Annual savings came from:

Bringing more print jobs back in house and thereby reducing external job costs
Reducing the number of employees delivering print services by 50% through more efficient processes and engaged employees.

Operational Efficiency Improvement

Thanks to optimized processes and a more engaged, expert staff, the print center and mailroom now deliver better service at higher volumes with half as many employees.

Greater Customer Satisfaction

In hospital-administered customer satisfaction scoring, the pre-ARO print center and mailroom consistently ranked 22nd out of 22 departments—in the “below baseline” range. Within four months of ARO transforming these services, the department had moved into the 2nd position. In several surveys, the department has earned the #1 ranking.