Solving Printer Issues in a Veterinary Hospital

Let’s be honest, printing sucks! It never seems to work right but yet we can’t get away from it. Is there something that we can do about it? The good news is that there is!

After working through printing issues for over 200 hospitals across North America here are our top 6 printing tips, for trouble free printing.

1) Don’t share a single printer from multiple computers.

For example, only share your pharmacy label maker from your Pharmacy PC or Lab PC. If you share it from multiple computers, the other computers in your hospital won’t know which computer to talk to and thus not be able to send the print job.

2) Make sure to update your printer names

Don’t leave the name of the printer as the default. For example, HP 123458990. If you give your printer a functionary name like, Reception HP. It makes it much easier to make sure every computer in the hospital has the correct printers.

3) Use an Ethernet Cable when possible

If you can connect your printer to your network via an ethernet cable over Wi-Fi or USB this is always preferable. The connection to the printer will be much more stable over the long run. Wi-Fi is great. But as we know Wi-Fi isn’t the most reliable, especially if your Wi-Fi comes from your Internet Service Provider’s Modem/Router.

Ok – the following tips are for the more technically inclined. But can also make a huge difference in printer reliability.

4) Use TCP/IP over WSD

When you connect a printer to the network by default it will want to communicate over WSD. But if you change your printer to connect to the network via TCP/IP and giving it a static IP address. Example 192.168.0.1. Makes for a much more stable connection and easier to add to other computers.

PRO TIP: Need help with this one? Simply Google “Change Printer from WSD to TCP/IP”. There are a number of great how to articles that will walk you through the process.

5) Use V4 Drivers

By using the V4 drivers it allows for a computer to communicate with multiple computers. Which is exactly what we need in a veterinary hospital.

6) Check Reviews before buying a printer

This may sound simple but some vendors are engaged in highly exploitative shenanigans nowadays. Meaning that they will disable certain functions when the printer is out of ink. For example being able to send a fax.

Peace, Love and Plants
Clint Latham, J.D.
CEO Lucca Veterinary Data Security
www.Lucca.Vet