Putting patients at ease with smart and effective technology

When thinking about hospitals and the day-to-day technology that staff use to look after patients, it is easy to focus on larger equipment like an MRI or CT Scanner. These are essential tools when it comes to diagnosis and finding the best course of treatment for a condition — but treatment is only half the battle. To help patients heal, medical professionals also need to consider their mental wellbeing and keeping a patient positive is essential on the road to recovery.

If you find yourself in the emergency room as a patient, things have probably not gone your way in recent times. Chances are you would prefer to be anywhere else and so when it comes time to be admitted, the more effortless that process is, the better. This is where the Brother TD-2000 series label printers can assist in patient care by streamlining admissions — especially when it comes to Patient ID printing. In addition to speed, it also allows for higher reliability and can improve patient safety by utilising smarter and safer patient ID techniques and barcode medical administration system integration.

A brief prepared by the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research in 2013 found that barcode point of care systems ‘have the potential to reduce administration errors but are sometimes used incorrectly due to technology limitations and poor design e.g. faulty barcodes’. It is therefore essential that any barcode system be infallible, especially when relied upon for the wellbeing of a patient. The report conclusions stated that these systems rely on well-designed technology that is being used correctly by caregivers. The TD-2000 series is designed specifically to make the process simple and easy-to-use while maintaining high reliability and optimum functionality.

The TD-2000 series uses barcode point of care technology for real-time verification of crucial information like patient details, what medication they require and dosage as well as time and route. It is also compatible with TrustSense™ media from PDC Healthcare — a trusted leader in positive patient identification for more than 55 years which adds an extra level of reliability. This technology used in the printer series can provide automated alerts to caregivers in order to eliminate potential harmful errors before they occur, helping to protect patients, provide peace of mind for clinicians, and maintain compliance with important patient safety regulations.

With connectivity options that include mobile devices and configurations that include Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries, staff can work in virtually any area of a hospital. The Printer’s transportable, wireless format empowers clinicians to administer care directly where it’s needed most — with the patient at almost any point of care location whether from a workstation in admissions to a cart at patient bedside, and everywhere in between.

The Brother TD-2000 series excels as the backbone of any patient ID system. It is, after all, a label printer and can be used with a wide range of label types and across a wide range of uses in hospitals and other healthcare arenas. Labelling is an important part of the information communication process across a multitude of tasks outside of patient ID wristbands — like labelling medication dosage, giving patients instructions for prescriptions, patient records and more. A label printer, like those from the Brother TD-2000 series, can also be relied upon to create fast and accurate labels when preparing medical samples to be sent away to the laboratory for analysis. These need to be reliable and accurate as making a mistake can be extremely costly and inefficient. A simple error of incorrect printing and labelling just won’t do as it can literally mean the difference between life and death.

This level of accuracy and precision must be present through each and every stage of patient care. From the moment a patient is checked-in, while they are being monitored and after they are sent home, the Brother TD-2000 series of industrial label printers are there for every step of the journey.

Brother TD-2120N

The Cerner Certified Brother TD-2120N is a perfect match for the healthcare industry as it is a robust and versatile solution that is highly customisable. It can be used as a desktop labeller, connected directly into a PC or it can be configured to be portable using the optional Lithium Ion battery attachment. Brother understands that every healthcare professional is different and that the needs of an environment can change over time. With the demands placed on care professionals, versatile and mobile tools are essential in maintaining accuracy with maximum efficiency.

The TD-2120N prints at 15.24 centimetres per second at a maximum resolution of 203 dots per inch. It has 32MB of RAM and 16MB of onboard flash and can accommodate rolls of up to 15.7cm in diameter, meaning less time wasted reloading media. It provides healthcare workers with the option of wirelessly printing a variety of barcode labels quickly and whenever needed in the laboratory, pharmacy, front desk or even at the patient’s bedside. With support for the most common barcode protocols, it is ideally suited to any labelling task in healthcare.

Customisable to meet your labelling & record printing needs

As every healthcare professional has different needs, there are numerous optional extras available which allows for you to pick and choose in creating the TD to your unique requirement. As each printing application is different, you might choose to select different options at a later time, making it more cost efficient for you and your business.

The TD-2120N series has been created to be modular so depending on the needs of the user, it can be customised to fulfil a specific function. It can be configured to be a wristband printer for use when inducting new patients at triage, directly from a PC, or it can be easily converted into a portable solution using the battery base. It can be connected to mobile devices via Bluetooth using an adapter or connected to a network with the wireless printing module. If you prefer to create labels on the fly from the device itself, it can even be fitted with a touch panel and keyboard to remove the need of a computer or mobile device altogether. To improve efficiency, the TD-2120N can even be fitted with an automatic label peeler.

The TD-2120N is the one label printer that bridges your desktop and mobile printing needs. It offers the performance, features and media capacity of a desktop printer but is also capable of compact mobility and wireless printing. Whether it is at the front desk, in the laboratory or roaming, its compact size means it can fit anywhere to achieve widely varied tasks.

Easy to use and deploy

For deskop use, Brother has developed advanced label design tools and features included as a standard feature of TD-2120N. Supplied as standard, using P-Touch Editor 5 you can create your own custom labels with pixel precision. With features such as support for over 15 barcode protocols, advanced image dithering to print high quality greyscale images, and the ability to link to data contained in Excel™ spreadsheets for batch printing of labels, any label design is possible.

Depending on the requirements of the customer, the Brother team can also offer customised software solutions making label printing possible from many Microsoft® Windows™ applications as well. This service is typically developed for advanced users i.e. System Integrators and can give more control in customising label design as well as batch printing. With the ever increasing trend of mobile apps and the convenience it offers, the Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) is a handy solution for developers to incorporate label and receipt printing into mobile apps. There are SDKs available for iOS™, Android™ and Windows Mobile™ for printing wirelessly from smartphones, tablets and PCs.

If a business is already running existing and legacy systems via ZPL® applications, the TD-2120N can connect easily and be adjusted with the built-in settings so you will be up and printing in no time.

Helping to find the perfect solution

Brother has a dedicated Corporate Solutions Team whose sole purpose is to work with companies to discuss complete technology packages tailored to the specific needs of a workspace. Headed by Luke Howard, Brother International Australia’s Commercial Market Development Channel Manager, the team is dedicated to delivering top of the range products and solutions to assist customers in meeting their evolving business needs. The team will endeavour to better understand your print environment and come up with a suite of products to improve your workflow. In addition to meeting the label printing requirements of a healthcare business, the team can also create solutions that incorporate other Brother technologies and services to bring down the cost of ownership, maintenance and initial deployment.

For more information on the TD-212ON visit
http://www.brother.com.au/TDlabelling solutions

Alternatively, contact the Brother Commercial Division on:
Phone: 1300 885 989 | Email: corporatesales@brother.com.au
Website: http://corpsolutions.brother.com.au