HITECH Act Drives Mahaska Health Partnership to Imprivata for Secure Access to Electronic Medical Records
Another Healthland Hospital Turns to Imprivata OneSign for Single Sign-On and Strong Authentication
LEXINGTON, MA—March 15, 2010—Imprivata® Inc., the company that simplifies and secures user access, announced today that Mahaska Health Partnership (MHP) has secured its virtual and traditional computing environments using Imprivata OneSign. With Imprivata OneSign, MHP streamlined clinician access to patient data, both within the facility and from remote locations, while effectively addressing key mandates introduced in the Healthcare Information Portability and Privacy (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Acts.
Located in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Mahaska Health Partnership is a critical access hospital that encompasses a multitude of healthcare services. In 2009, following the passing of the HITECH Act, the MHP team looked to protect its patient data by implementing an additional layer of security in its Healthland environment. After initial efforts to tighten security negatively impacted clinical workflows, the team decided to conduct an extensive review of single sign-on (SSO) solutions. In the end, Mahaska Health Partnership’s IT team selected Imprivata OneSign because of its ease-of-use, low cost, excellent customer service and successful track record of working with Healthland systems.
Today, Mahaska Health Partnership’s 276 clinicians use Imprivata OneSign with strong authentication to simplify and secure access to patient data in more than 30 applications. In conjunction with SSO, MHP’s users rely on UPEK finger biometric scanners for on-site authentication and RSA tokens for remote authentication. The biometric readers support most virtual desktops and all virtual HP laptops located in MHP’s Inpatient unit. The combined SSO/Strong Authentication approach enables clinicians to chart from any location. Biometric support is also available on all computers on wheels (COWs) located in the facility’s operating rooms (ORs). By marrying multiple forms of strong authentication with SSO, the IT team has reduced the time it takes for clinicians to securely access patient data.
“As we looked to implement more stringent security policies, our initial efforts created inefficiencies that frustrated our team and had the potential to impact patient care,” said Kristi Roose, Mahaska Health Partnership director of IT. “With OneSign, we have deployed a system that allows clinicians to more effectively serve patients, from any location, while at the same time allowing us to ensure that our operations are successfully addressing all compliance requirements of HIPAA and HITECH mandates for access control.”
“Striking the perfect balance between application access and industry regulation compliance is an ongoing challenge facing all hospitals,” said Omar Hussain, president and CEO of Imprivata. “By leveraging OneSign SSO in conjunction with strong authentication, Mahaska Health Partnership is able to provide its clinicians with secure and convenient access to patient data while maintaining regulatory compliance with HIPAA and the HITECH Act. We are delighted that Mahaska Health Partnership is using OneSign to secure its Healthland environment and we are proud of their achievements.”
Imprivata OneSign provides healthcare organizations with rapid single sign-on and strong authentication for all leading HIS vendors, including Cerner, Epic, Healthland, McKesson, MEDITECH, Siemens Medical, as well as all other types of applications. Key Imprivata OneSign features include OneSign FastPass, OneSign ProveID, Citrix/XenApp & terminal services support, shared workstations and fast user switching, built-in support for a broad range of authentication and multiple card types, self-service password reset and seamless integration with context management solutions.
About Imprivata
Imprivata is the leading independent vendor focused on simplifying and securing user access. By strengthening user authentication, streamlining application access and simplifying compliance reporting across multiple computing environments, customers can align security with user workflows and realize substantial productivity gains while lowering IT costs.
Imprivata has received numerous product awards and top review ratings from leading industry publications and analysts. Headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Imprivata partners with over 200 resellers, and serves the access security needs of more than 900 customers around the world. For more information, please visit www.imprivata.com.
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