As hospitals look ahead to 2026, one reality is becoming clear: compliance readiness now hinges on workflow visibility, not just policy updates. Patient data is moving across more devices, teams, and locations than ever, and even small breakdowns — a misrouted scan, unsecured print job, or moment of downtime — can quickly create reportable risk.  

With hybrid teams, rising cyber threats, and mounting documentation requirements, hospitals must address the hidden workflow vulnerabilities that quietly undermine compliance long before an audit.

1. The Biggest Compliance Blind Spot: Patient Data Moving Through Unmanaged Workflows

Electronic health records (EHRs) are tightly locked down. But the workflows surrounding them — printing, scanning, emailing, routing, and storing protected health information (PHI) — are often not. 

Common high-risk gaps include: 

• Printed patient records left unattended at nurse stations, clinics, or shared devices. 
  
• Unsecured routing paths, where scans or faxes land in generic email boxes with unclear ownership. 
  
• Shadow processes created by overworked departments (e.g., manually tracking follow-ups outside EHR workflows). 
  
• Unlogged device activity, making it impossible to verify who printed or accessed sensitive data.

These behaviors aren’t malicious — they’re symptoms of workload pressure and outdated infrastructure. But under HIPAA and expanding state-level privacy laws, a single uncontrolled document can trigger reportable exposure. 

What to fix now: 

• Implement secure print release and user authentication. 
  
• Digitize high-risk workflows with structured routing and audit trails. 
  
• Apply least-privilege access and record-level accountability across all multifunction devices.

Hospitals that treat PHI movement outside the EHR with the same seriousness as inside the EHR close a major compliance gap overnight. 

2. Hybrid Teams Are Stretching Compliance Beyond Its Breaking Point

Even in clinical settings, hybrid administrative models are now the norm. Patient access, billing, coding, HR, finance, and population health teams often toggle between in-office and remote work. 

This introduces risk because: 

• Staff rely on multiple physical locations — home printers, personal devices, unsecured Wi-Fi, or paper notes. 
  
• Communication bottlenecks slow down time-sensitive processes (release of information, prior auth, appeals, referrals). 
  
• Policy enforcement becomes inconsistent, especially when printed or scanned documents leave controlled environments.

With Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) increasing scrutiny on documentation integrity and timely reporting, any workflow that relies on manual back-and-forth introduces avoidable exposure. 

What to fix now: 

• Standardize workflow automation across all teams — onsite and remote. 
  
• Eliminate home-based printing and adopt secure digital document workflows. 
  
• Provide cloud-based solutions that maintain compliance without sacrificing productivity.

Compliance is no longer confined to the four walls of a facility — your tools must reflect that reality. 

3. Print Security Is Still the Most Overlooked Attack Surface in Healthcare

Printers and multifunction devices behave like networked computers, and they store data like them, too. 

Yet they often remain: 

• Unencrypted 
  
• Unpatched 
  
• Without role-based access 
  
• Without logging and reporting 
  
• Shared by multiple departments handling different risk categories of PHI

In 2024–2025, several major data breaches originated from imaging devices and unmanaged print environments. Regulators noticed and so did cyber insurers. 

What to fix now: 

• Require secure print release and user authentication. 
  
• Encrypt data in transit and at rest on every device. 
  
• Use a centralized print management platform with unified patching and compliance reporting. 
  
• Physically segment printers between high-risk (clinical) and lower-risk (administrative) areas.

If you wouldn’t allow clinicians to chart on an unsecured workstation, you shouldn’t allow them to print from one either. 

4. Downtime Is a Compliance Problem — Not Just an Operational One

Hospitals measure downtime in minutes because lives depend on it. But compliance teams now measure downtime in risk exposure. 

When print servers crash, routing workflows break, or scanning slows down: 

• Patient consents can’t be captured or filed. 
  
• Critical discharge documents may be delayed. 
  
• Orders, labels, and wristbands may not print correctly. 
  
• Manual workarounds appear — often untraceable and non-compliant. 
  
• Audit trails fall apart. 
  
• Staff frustration leads to policy shortcuts.

A single hour of downtime creates a chain reaction that touches medication safety, care coordination, and documentation reliability. 

What to fix now: 

• Modernize print infrastructure with high-availability architecture. 
  
• Introduce automated failover and device-level redundancy. 
  
• Apply proactive monitoring to catch bottlenecks before they hit patient care. 
  
• Train hybrid teams on downtime-ready digital workflows.

Compliance requires continuity — and continuity requires visibility. 

5. How Hospitals Can Get 2026-Ready: A Practical Blueprint

To eliminate hidden workflow risks, health systems should focus on three categories: 

• Map document and data flows across every department
• Identify manual touchpoints 
• Benchmark device utilization and risk concentration 
• Centralize reporting for print, scan, and routing activities

B. Standardization

• Replace ad-hoc processes with governed workflows
• Roll out secure print release across all campuses
• Standardize scanning and routing templates
• Protect remote workflows with cloud-based compliance tools

C. Resilience

• Implement high-availability print infrastructure
• Reduce single points of failure
• Maintain tech parity for hybrid teams
• Build automated audit trails for PHI movement

2026 readiness is not just about checking boxes — it’s about creating a compliant ecosystem where people, processes, and technology work together without friction. 

Hospitals that fix these hidden workflow risks now will enter the new year with stronger compliance posture, reduced exposure, and smoother patient-facing operations. 

Not sure where your biggest compliance vulnerabilities are? Our team can help you map, modernize, and secure the workflows that keep your hospital running. Contact us today!