HIPAA News

Imprivata Helps United Regional Health Care Provide Its World-Class Physicians with Secure and Convenient Application Access

(Jan 22, 2008)-- Imprivata, the converged identity and access management appliance company, announced that its OneSign Single Sign-On (SSO) solution has been selected by United Regional Health Care, a Wichita Falls, TX-based health care organization that offers state-of-the-art technologies and facilities, a broad spectrum of health care services and a level of quality care unmatched in the region. Implemented in conjunction with CDW Healthcare, a leading provider of technology products and services to healthcare organizations, Imprivata’s flexible, appliance-based single sign-on solution helps United Regional solve the password management frustrations its staff had been experiencing as new applications and login policies were added to their everyday routines.

To improve the system used for accessing critical patient data and information, United Regional’s IT staff developed a Physician Portal Page, which allows staff to access information and applications from anywhere, on-site or remotely. Based upon the recommendation of technology specialists from CDW Healthcare, United Regional combined single sign-on capabilities with One Time Password (OTP) tokens to protect and authenticate the Portal Page, enabling physicians and staff to provide quality care regardless of their location.

“In the process of making critical patient information and clinical applications more easily accessible for our staff, we identified password management issues that could have thrown the entire project off-track,” said Lanny Evans, Information Services Manager, United Regional Health Care. “However, by partnering with CDW Healthcare and Imprivata to implement single sign-on, we ensured that our information access project lived up to its promise—providing secure, convenient access for physicians and staff—from anywhere. Thanks to OneSign’s capabilities as well as the extensive logistical and technical support we received from CDW Healthcare – including an onsite product demonstration and a rapid solution deployment – we were able to make this project a reality.”

HIPAA compliance was another concern of United Regional’s, as the regulations mandate the protection of patient data. Whatever system was put in place would need to be able to seamlessly protect patient information—even in situations where staff were called away from the terminal they were at and forgot to log off. The combination of OneSign SSO and proximity badges provided a solution for this problem, as terminals now instantly lock out when the staff member leaves the workstation.

“By implementing OneSign SSO, United Regional’s IT staff delivered top-notch service to the center’s physicians and staff, helping to free up their time so they could spend less of it remembering passwords—and more of it caring for patients,” added Omar Hussain, president and CEO of Imprivata. “United Regional made it clear up front that its expectations in terms of service—for customers, caregivers and IT staff alike—were extremely high. We are proud that Imprivata has lived up to these stringent criteria.”

In addition, Imprivata’s OneSign solution helped solve another critical problem at United Regional—the burden of password lockouts and resets that had fallen on the shoulders of the center’s IT staff. With the applications all requiring frequent password changes and the locking out of users after a few attempts, the help desk was overworked with password-related problems. By setting up a single sign-on environment, not only is the center more secure, but the IT staff has far more time on their hands as well to concentrate on organizational and patient care initiatives.

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