Inkjet printers in medical practices: PTS tests document authenticity
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The document authenticity of printed forms must be guaranteed. For this reason, the Federal Mantle Agreement stipulates that the printer manufacturer must provide a test certificate from the Papiertechnische Stiftung for the production of original documents for the inkjet printer.
The background for this is the approval of inkjet printers in medical practices, which will apply from January 2021. So far, only laser printers have been approved. Annex 2a of the German Federal Medical Covenant (BundesmantelvertragsÄrzte) will be amended accordingly.
The medical profession has expressed the wish to permit other processes in addition to laser printing technology. As a result of the new regulation, practices will have a choice as of January 2021 as to which printing technology they wish to use.
With blank form printing, practices can print special security paper with the contents of the forms. The advantage: practices do not have to keep any forms on hand, but "only" a sufficient amount of security paper. This means they can print out almost all forms themselves - for example, certificates of incapacity for work, prescriptions for remedies or referrals - as required.
Experience and test certificate
Due to its high level of competence and experience in testing document authenticity within the Service Regulations for Notaries Public (DONot), the specifications of the state ministries of justice, the Federal Budget Code and the service instructions for the registry office system, the PTS team will now also be the contact for manufacturers of inkjet printers whose devices are to be used in medical practices.
The overall system "printer - ink - paper" is tested as a unit. Test printouts for future certificates and documents, the unprinted paper itself, and selected data from the printer for reproducibility of the test result are examined here. The test printouts are subjected to chemical, mechanical, optical and thermal stresses, after which the print characters must also be clearly displayed and legible. Special attention is paid to the durability of the printed image in order to exclude invisible manipulation of the printed documents. If the test is passed successfully, we issue a test certificate to the equipment manufacturers, which they can use as proof or for marketing purposes.
