Today's healthcare organizations are managing technology driven environments and dispersed networks, while trying to protect patients from targeted cyberattacks and following strict compliance regulations, such as HIPAA. Healthcare IT professionals need to be able to access and support systems, applications, devices, doctors, and medical staff spread across different locations quickly and reliably. But they also must secure a significant amount of sensitive patient data and information stored on their network, which makes them an attractive target for cybercriminals.
With Bomgar, healthcare providers, payers, and integrated care organizations can enable and manage secure access to healthcare systems and medical devices while keeping patient data protected.
One such organization is Axiom Medical, an organization that specializes in providing complete occupational health services for the total life cycle of their client's employees. Based in Houston, Texas, Axiom has approximately 140 employees between two office locations that includes experts in the fields of worker’s compensation, disability case management and OSHA-mandated medical programs. The company’s employee base ranges from doctors and physician’s assistants, to registered nurses and other specially trained medical professionals.
Prior to using Bomgar, Axiom’s three help desk representatives and two IT infrastructure technicians were using VPN connections and Skype for Business to remotely connect to end user devices and servers. However, the help desk team experienced instances in which the VPN would drop due to problems with the end user’s internet connection, leaving them without a means to connect remotely to a user’s device. Additionally, the IT department had concerns that the security of these remote support sessions was inadequate. As a result, the organization began looking for a better solution, with more advanced features and top-grade security.
I first heard about Bomgar while interviewing an applicant for our IT manager position. He raved about his experience with it at the company he was with at that time, so I decided to do some research on the solution. I realized it was exactly what we were looking for to handle our remote support requirements.
Security Concerns Are Top of Mind in Healthcare
Given that Axiom is in the healthcare industry, security was a critical consideration when choosing Bomgar’s virtual appliance as the company’s deployment option. “Bomgar’s session traffic is fully encrypted, which is a more secure approach than the VPN tunneling we were using before,” Wheeler added. Axiom also uses Bomgar sessions to give outside vendors controlled access to their infrastructure systems, and is looking at other Bomgar solutions to institute approval-based access to its server resources to enhance security even more.
Screen Sharing Was Just The Beginning
Axiom’s nurse case managers also like the ability to use Bomgar for training purposes. “We used the presentation function once to show our nurse case managers something IT-related and, after that, they started utilizing it themselves to conduct case management training sessions when they can’t get together physically,” said Wheeler. “It’s great that Bomgar can be leveraged for the business side of our organization as well as the IT side.”
Additionally, the IT team is using the Bomgar Insight remote camera sharing functionality to troubleshoot hardware and peripherals. It enables the IT team to view physical objects such as the back of a computer or a cable connection on a server, streamed live from the end user’s smartphone camera. Techs can use a video marker to draw or make other annotations on the screen to walk the end user through the steps to correct an issue. <insert InSight image>
Bomgar Benefits All Employees
Overall, both Wheeler and the support team at Axiom see the Bomgar solution as an improvement to the overall support experience. “I know we’re only at the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more things that we can utilize Bomgar to accomplish. I’m excited to be a champion for the product,” concluded Wheeler.
This week (March 5-9, 2018), Bomgar is exhibiting and presenting at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, at booth No. 8600. Bomgar will lead a session featuring expert insight into addressing and overcoming some of the common challenges healthcare organizations face when securing privileged access to critical systems, to shore up your security posture and implement a true defense-in-depth strategy.
For more details about Axiom Medical’s use of Bomgar, check out their full case study!
