Managed IT and security for medical practices
If the computers stop, so does the clinic.
The EHR is one of many places patient information lives. It is also in staff email, on the check-in computers, with your billing company and your lab, and in your backups. The EHR vendor secures the EHR and stops there. When one of the other parts breaks, nobody can open a chart, the schedule locks up, and the waiting room fills with people you cannot see.
A 30-minute call in plain English. You hang up knowing where your practice actually stands.
Medical offices are targeted on purpose
A full schedule is leverage. Patients are counting on you today for refills, lab results, and appointments, which means a clinic cannot simply close for a week while it sorts things out. Ransomware crews understand that pressure well, and they are betting it will make you pay fast.
The records themselves are the other draw. A bank kills a stolen card number within minutes. A name, a Social Security number, a diagnosis, and an insurance ID stay usable for years, so thieves take patient records whether or not they plan to demand a ransom.
And there is more to defend than the EHR. There is staff email. There is the front-desk PC still using the password it was given the week the office opened. There are the billing and lab companies you send data to, and backups that have never once been restored. The EHR vendor takes care of its own software. Everything else on that list is the practice’s responsibility.
Five places patient data sits beyond the EHR
The inbox collects lab results, referral letters, messages from payers, and the password-reset links for every other system you use. Someone who gets into a mailbox frequently never needs to touch the EHR.
Sign-ins to the EHR and patient portal
Who can log in, from where, and with what protection on each login? If every nurse uses the same password and it is written on a sticky note at the station, the vendor’s safeguards no longer count for much.
Front-desk and clinical devices
The check-in PCs, the tablets and laptops clinicians carry, and the workstation in the back office are all ways in if no one is managing or watching them. A strict EHR password policy does not change that.
Backups
On your worst day, the backup is what you fall back on. If no one has ever restored from it, you are assuming it works. The middle of a ransomware attack is a bad moment to test the assumption.
Vendors
Your billing company, lab, imaging center, and after-hours answering service all handle patient information on your behalf. A weakness in their security is a weakness in yours. Most practices have never asked any of them how that information is protected.
Signs a practice has a gap
Nobody on staff can recall a test restore from backup ever being done.
The front desk logs in to scheduling or the EHR through a single account everyone shares.
MFA is required on some systems and missing on others, and no one has written down which.
Providers read charts and email on personal laptops and phones that nobody manages.
Some of the security questions on the last cyber insurance application were answered with a guess.
No one has asked the lab, the billing company, or the answering service how they protect patient information.
Common questions
Isn’t security the EHR vendor’s job?
For the EHR itself, yes. The vendor secures the application, the servers underneath it, and the sign-in controls. It does not secure the front-desk computer you use to get there, the mailbox that receives patient messages, or the billing company your claims go to. Those are the practice’s to protect, and most of the real risk sits with them.
We are a small office. Would anyone bother attacking us?
Yes. Healthcare records sell for a high price on the dark web, and healthcare providers are a common target of ransomware attacks. Small practices get picked because they seldom have the enterprise-grade defenses a large hospital system runs.
What does HIPAA require from us on the security side?
Under the HIPAA Security Rule, a practice is expected to perform a risk analysis and document it, put safeguards in place that address the findings, control who can reach electronic patient information, train its workforce, and hold signed business associate agreements (BAAs) with the vendors that handle that information. We help you build each of those pieces and keep them current.
We have an IT person who covers everything. What does Defendrs add?
General IT keeps the computers working and the medical software up to date. That is a different thing from HIPAA compliance or specialized cybersecurity. We co-manage security alongside your IT person. They stay focused on day-to-day support, and we work on protecting you from breaches and regulatory audits.
Is this going to slow down check-in or patient flow?
Not often. We build safeguards to fit the way the clinic already works. If a change is going to be noticeable to staff at the front desk, you will hear about it from us before it happens.
Your patients assume their records are well protected. Make that assumption correct.
People tell you their medical history because they trust you with it. Give us 30 minutes and we will tell you whether your systems deserve the same trust.