Edward Hospital & Health Services - RSA

ABOUT
EDWARD HOSPITAL
Edward Hospital &
Health Services is a fullservice
medical center
serving several communities
west of Chicago,
including Naperville,
Bolingbrook, Plainfield
and Aurora, Illinois. The
hospital offers comprehensive,
inpatient and
outpatient services for
primary care, cardiac
medicine, reproductive
health, cancer care,
emergency medicine and
many other specialties.
Edward Hospital & Health Services
RSA Security and Vector ESP enhance
physician access to patient information.
“Our network of independent physicians comprises one of Edward Hospital’s most valued
resources. Secure remote access has enhanced the work experience for our doctors by allowing
them to use their time more efficiently. In turn, this improves the timeliness and quality of
patient care while protecting patient records, in compliance with HIPAA1 . We couldn’t ask for a
better outcome.”
Gary Mielak, Chief Information Officer, Edward Hospital & Health Services
Located in Naperville, Illinois—which Money magazine voted as one of “the best places to live”
in the U.S.—Edward Hospital & Health Services has a long track record of providing superb medical
care. The hospital owes much of its reputation for excellence to the high caliber of its 800-plus
independent physicians. More than 95 percent are board certified, and many have trained at
prestigious medical universities around the world.
ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF WORK LIFE
To attract and retain the most talented doctors, Edward Hospital strives to provide the best
possible work environment while using innovation to continually enhance the quality of patient
care. The hospital had both these goals in mind when it implemented a secure remote access
solution based on RSA SecurID ® authentication and Citrix MetaFrame for Windows ® .
“Our physicians face many demands on their time,” said Laura Bagus, Director of Technical
Services & Help Desk for Edward Hospital. “We wanted to make it faster and easier for them to
obtain patient information when they were at their practices, working from home or traveling.”
In the past, physicians had to request lab results over the phone and then wait while a staff
member accessed the hospital’s Meditech health information system and then printed and faxed
the relevant records. “We knew that if we could give physicians direct access to this information,
everyone involved could work more efficiently, and patients would benefit from more timely,
responsive care,” said Bagus.
FINDING THE OPTIMAL SOLUTION
To tackle this problem, Edward Hospital turned to one of its long-time solution advisors, Vector
ESP, a leader in providing Secure Connected Access to applications and information. After
evaluating the hospital’s requirements, Vector ESP proposed a solution that consisted of Citrix
Metaframe for Windows and RSA SecurID two-factor authentication.
1 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

“We felt this combination of technologies closely matched
the hospital’s requirements,” said Scott Hargus, Senior
Systems Consultant for Vector. “From prior experience we
knew that a Citrix and RSA Security joint solution is easy to
use, allowing individuals to access applications using any
standard PC and Internet connection. In terms of ease of
deployment and cost of ownership, it does not require any
manual installation or maintenance of client-side software,
as would have been required with the VPN-based solutions
available at the time.”
MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF HIPAA
Equally important, the solution addressed the high level
of security called for by the hospital’s own standards and by
HIPAA compliance requirements relating to user authentication,
authorization and data protection. As Laura Bagus
noted, “RSA SecurID two-factor authentication is a strong
deterrent to unauthorized users who attempt to access
medical records. It also protects our users from theft of their
online identities by making it very difficult for an impostor
to impersonate a legitimate user.”
RSA SecurID tokens help ensure user identities by requiring
individuals to input two unique identifiers during login: a
one-time-use authentication code that is displayed on the
user’s token at the time of the login, plus the user’s
confidential PIN. Because the code is randomly generated
and changes every 60 seconds, it is virtually impossible to
hack or guess.
Furthermore, Citrix MetaFrame allowed the hospital to provide
secure access to specific applications without the risk of
opening the entire network to remote users. Additionally,
it protected sensitive patient information by encrypting
data as it crosses the public network.
ABOUT VECTOR ESP
Vector ESP is a leading
technology solution advisor,
focused on providing Secure
Connected Access to
mission-critical applications
and information through
integrated services, solutions,
hardware and software.
Vector ESP is an
RSA Securworld channel
partner.
BUILDING USER ACCEPTANCE
Starting with a 100-user pilot program, use of remote access
increased steadily, and today more than 600 people use the
RSA SecurID authentication solution. Among medical
professionals, the most common uses include accessing
e-mail, viewing patient records and lab results and ordering
tests and medications. Medical transcribers, who often work
from home, also make significant use of the system to
promptly deliver medical transcripts.
“We were very pleased with every aspect of this solution,”
said Bagus. “It provided on-demand access to information
on a 24/7 basis, saved time by cutting down on phone calls
and faxes, and reduced clerical errors associated with the
handling of hard-copy records.”
MAKING A GOOD THING BETTER
Edward has since broadened its remote access capabilities
by implementing the Citrix Secured Gateway product, in
conjunction with RSA SecurID tokens, to create My.
Edward.Org. “This enhanced solution makes it possible for
us to provide Internet application access to a wider group of
corporate users, because the applications already exist on
our Citrix Farm,” said Patrick Man, Network Engineer for
Edward Hospital and Health Services. “Due to the elimination
of new user passwords and the relative ease of setup,
most users don’t have to come in for training. Things have
gone very smoothly, and support calls are way down.”
Looking ahead, Man noted, “One of the goals of this
solution is to offer an alternative to corporate laptops.
With the popularity of home PCs and broadband Internet
connectivity, we foresee the trend of laptop users migrating
to My.Edward.Org for its many benefits.”
Authorized Reseller:
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©2004 RSA Security Inc. All rights reserved.
EDHO CP 0504