Ricoh Demonstrating Solutions for Paperless Healthcare at HIMSS12

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment and advanced document management solutions and services, is demonstrating a broad array of powerful solutions at HIMSS12 for helping healthcare organizations make rapid progress along the "Paperless Maturity Roadmap."

Conceived by Ricoh Healthcare (booth #2674), the "Paperless Maturity Roadmap" helps providers visualize how the strategic reduction of paper and related paper-based systems can help address the operational inefficiencies that present some of the most critical challenges in healthcare today. Progress toward a paperless state can yield better efficiencies, reduced costs and valuable improvements in operational measures. A client's current healthcare information infrastructure determines their maturity stage within the framework and suggests product/service combinations that can help them achieve deeper improvements.

Recognized as one of the premier conferences in the healthcare industry, the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition takes place Monday, Feb. 20 through Friday, Feb. 24 at the Venetian Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. It is expected to attract about 30,000 attendees, ranking it as one of the largest healthcare IT and management systems conferences in the world. Ricoh is a Diamond sponsor.

To illustrate the Paperless Maturity Roadmap, Ricoh is demonstrating solutions that support Ricoh's three-stage approach to tackling healthcare information challenges:

1. Stabilize the information capture and production environment;
2. Rationalize technology resources in a more cost-effective way; and
3. Optimize information management to help drive new levels of integration, speed and accuracy.

Under the banner "Ricoh Healthcare. Process Optimized. Healthcare Simplified," Ricoh is demonstrating interoperable solutions[1] for:

• Advanced clinical and administrative document capture
  • A key on-ramp for electronic health record (EHR)/Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) readiness
  • Crucial to streamline administrative document capture
• Enterprise forms management
  • Critical for clinical and administrative process optimization
• Enterprise content management
  • Vital for eliminating gaps among healthcare applications
• Enterprise output management
  • Essential for removing costs and taking control of print

For example, Ricoh will be demonstrating a software solution by Inofile that permits healthcare providers to easily attach loose sheet documents securely, accurately and effortlessly to a patient record in real time. Providers would be able to scan the documents on a workgroup MFP and use the Inofile software to convert as well as receive and send the electronic data in HL7-CDA, the standard language for exchange of healthcare industry information. The software would then attach the documents to the correct patient record. A prototype of this innovative software solution has been ported to operate on a dedicated Ricoh healthcare MFP. HIMSS12 attendees can view the prototype in the conference's HIMSS Interoperability Showcase, and at Ricoh Healthcare booth #2674.

"All healthcare providers are on a journey toward a paperless environment, though no two are at the same place along the path," said Jon Elwell, Vice President, Healthcare, Ricoh USA. "We believe the greatest opportunity for savings is actually within the page that's never printed. Our solutions can help any provider improve efficiency, advance their EHR agenda, and measurably improve organizational performance. No company is better suited to helping healthcare organizations mine inefficiency out of their document-burdened processes than the one that has a legacy of document management solutions at its core."

Also at HIMSS12, Ricoh is detailing its Ricoh Rapid Process Assessment (RPA) business process analysis methodology. Ricoh RPA is designed as a first step for helping clients with disparate technologies and manual paper-based processes to jumpstart their improvement initiatives. Ricoh RPA uncovers a healthcare organization's most pressing needs in information management staffing, technology and methods, providing a current state picture and plan for measurable improvement. Subsequent process redesign, re-engineering and enabling technologies can help eliminate silos that slow information delivery and burden clinicians and administrators.

To learn more about Ricoh's full line of products, services and solutions for healthcare, please visit www.ricoh-usa.com/healthcare.

About Ricoh Americas Corporation
Ricoh Americas Corporation, headquartered in West Caldwell, N.J., is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd., the 75-year-old leading provider of advanced office technology and innovative document imaging products, services and software, with fiscal year 2010 sales in excess of $23 billion. Ricoh's fully integrated hardware and customizable services and software help businesses share information efficiently and effectively by enabling customers to control the input, management and output of documents. Ricoh Americas Corporation, directly or through its network of authorized dealers, markets and distributes products in North, Central and South America. Information about Ricoh's complete range of offerings can be found at www.ricoh-usa.com.

© 2012 Ricoh Americas Corporation. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

[1] Solutions may be the product of a third party.

SOURCE Ricoh Americas Corporation