IT Challenges for Healthcare: Preventing Critical Weaknesses

The future of healthcare is heavily reliant on technological advancements. Nearly all modern healthcare facilities are turning to IT-based tools, equipment, and software to improve the quality of their healthcare and customize services to their patients’ unique and specific needs. 

Ever-growing healthcare technology is helping healthcare workers be more efficient in their jobs by streamlining the workflow of hospitals and clinics. It is also allowing physicians to provide unparalleled and personalized patient care by giving them immediate access to patient data and healthcare systems from their mobile devices. 

IT Challenges for Healthcare

While these advancements are revolutionizing the way hospitals and clinics run, there are a variety of challenges facing healthcare facilities when it comes to implementing healthcare IT. 

For example, healthcare facilities are often faced with the reality of their outdated technologies, including networks that cannot handle the demands of new technologies as well as outdated equipment, software, cabling and approaches to network security. And while patient security has always been a top priority of healthcare facilities, it is increasingly concerning as digital environments become more subject to data breaches. 

Many healthcare facilities are not aware of the weaknesses in their IT infrastructure, making them targets for potential cyber-attacks and data breaches. These challenges, while concerning, can be mitigated if healthcare facilities are educated on the risks their networks face. Below are some of the most common challenges facing healthcare IT.

Ransomware

Accounting for more than 85 percent of malware attacks on the healthcare industry, ransomware is a potentially devastating security threat that can potentially encrypt hospital and clinic servers and databases, rendering them inaccessible. 

Data Breaches

With countless patient and employee records stored on each of their networks, hospitals and clinics are prime targets for data thieves who aim to expose and exploit valuable personal patient and employee information. 

Legacy Software and Tools

Despite the advancements of healthcare IT, many healthcare facilities continue to operate using outdated technologies that are at serious risk for security breaches. Legacy systems were not designed with security measures capable of combating the vast array of today’s modern security threats. 

Compliance

Arguably one of the most concerning challenges facing modern healthcare facilities is the issue of compliance. Data and security breaches due to outdated IT systems and equipment can render a facility noncompliant to mandated security standards and have devastating consequences. 

Network Security

Patient care has been revolutionized by IT-based equipment such as wearable health devices. Because such devices are tied into a central network, data risks pose an entirely new level of potentially devastating consequences to patients’ privacy and health. 

What Healthcare Facilities Can Do

From IoT-connected healthcare devices to state-of-the-art patient systems, hospitals and clinics are utilizing the latest in healthcare IT to revolutionize the way physicians and facility staff connect with, care for and protect patients. 

It is up to healthcare facilities and providers to prioritize the security of their IT-based systems by educating themselves on the risks that face modern healthcare IT today. In addition, protecting patients’ health and security means learning what healthcare facilities can do to strengthen the security of their digital technology. 

At Taylored, we have partnered with healthcare facilities for over 30 years to help them keep up with the digital advancements in healthcare IT while maintaining an unparalleled level of digital security. We do so by creating a customized plan for each of our client partners and offering education on the risks and solutions that face modern healthcare facilities. 

Click here to download our e-book IT for Healthcare: HIPAA Compliance Might Be the Least of Your Worries to see what may be putting your security at risk in today’s healthcare technology-based climate, and to find out what you can do to protect it.