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Visiting Nurse Association of Boston
Background: The Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, a non-profit organization, is the oldest and one of the largest providers of comprehensive and compassionate home healthcare and hospice services in Greater Boston. Nearly 300 experienced clinicians of the VNA of Boston care for over 12,000 patients and families from infants to elders in a range of socio-economic groups. Making over 250,000 visits per year, the VNA of Boston is the largest provider of services to those who cannot afford them or those without insurance.
Challenges: The VNA of Boston needed to streamline their referral process in order to save time, reduce workloads, and, most importantly, obtain new business. The former procedure involved the VNA of Boston’s 300 hospital liaisons manually working to have hospital patients – from all major Boston hospitals - discharged to the VNA of Boston, rather than to competing organizations. The hospital liaisons would work through a call center, sometimes waiting for information for up to an hour. Unfortunately, this meant that the VNA of Boston would sometimes lose patients to competing organizations that were able to act more quickly. The VNA of Boston decided that by allowing the hospital liaisons wireless access to patient information while simultaneously ensuring patient confidentiality, the liaisons could have real-time access to the patient information and not need to rely on a middle man. Using wireless devices would save time and enable the VNA of Boston to gain new business, but with 300 liaisons trying to access the patient network and database, the VNA of Boston was worried about securing the confidential data. In order to make this new mobile solution effective, they needed to find a solution to secure data-in-transit and access to the corporate network.
Challenges: The VNA of Boston needed to streamline their referral process in order to save time, reduce workloads, and, most importantly, obtain new business. The former procedure involved the VNA of Boston’s 300 hospital liaisons manually working to have hospital patients – from all major Boston hospitals - discharged to the VNA of Boston, rather than to competing organizations. The hospital liaisons would work through a call center, sometimes waiting for information for up to an hour. Unfortunately, this meant that the VNA of Boston would sometimes lose patients to competing organizations that were able to act more quickly.
The VNA of Boston decided that by allowing the hospital liaisons wireless access to patient information while simultaneously ensuring patient confidentiality, the liaisons could have real-time access to the patient information and not need to rely on a middle man. Using wireless devices would save time and enable the VNA of Boston to gain new business, but with 300 liaisons trying to access the patient network and database, the VNA of Boston was worried about securing the confidential data. In order to make this new mobile solution effective, they needed to find a solution to secure data-in-transit and access to the corporate network.
“The VNA of Boston was extremely proactive by ensuring wireless security before deploying devices to the hospital liaisons. As wireless devices have all the same capabilities as laptops – along with the same vulnerabilities – the VNA of Boston is truly demonstrating leadership by ensuring security for their remote workers. It is essential that organizations like the VNA of Boston recognize wireless vulnerabilities and take action to ensure their organization’s integrity."
Mark Komisky, CEO of Bluefire
Issues: The VNA of Boston had two standards on which they had to base this new secure, mobile technology: As a healthcare organization, they are governed by HIPAA requirements and have to conform to these standards. By giving the hospital liaisons access to the patient database, the VNA of Boston knew they needed virtual private network (VPN) software to secure all access to this confidential database. The new solution also had to be easy to implement. For increased ROI, they aimed to rely on a simplistic but functional solution.
Issues: The VNA of Boston had two standards on which they had to base this new secure, mobile technology:
Solution provided by Bluefire Security Technologies: The VNA of Boston deployed Windows Mobile 5.0 devices along with the Bluefire Mobile Security® VPN. The customer developed an application that enables the hospital liaisons to remotely access the network and patient database, ultimately allowing the liaisons to make patient inquiries and get back to the hospital discharge planners in real-time. Bluefire’s VPN ensures the VNA of Boston that communication between the hospital liaisons and corporate headquarters is secure at all times. The Bluefire Mobile Security VPN provides an IPsec compliant secure connection for data-in-transit. Bluefire’s VPN is compliant with Federal Information Processing Standards 140-2 (FIPS 140-2), and operates seamlessly across Wi-Fi, LAN, and cellular networks with no user intervention required.
Solution provided by Bluefire Security Technologies: The VNA of Boston deployed Windows Mobile 5.0 devices along with the Bluefire Mobile Security® VPN. The customer developed an application that enables the hospital liaisons to remotely access the network and patient database, ultimately allowing the liaisons to make patient inquiries and get back to the hospital discharge planners in real-time.
Bluefire’s VPN ensures the VNA of Boston that communication between the hospital liaisons and corporate headquarters is secure at all times. The Bluefire Mobile Security VPN provides an IPsec compliant secure connection for data-in-transit. Bluefire’s VPN is compliant with Federal Information Processing Standards 140-2 (FIPS 140-2), and operates seamlessly across Wi-Fi, LAN, and cellular networks with no user intervention required.
"The implementation of the wireless devices secured by Bluefire’s VPN has been a phenomenal success. The hospital liaisons’ process now takes only a minute or two, saving as much as an hour for each hospital referral. Bluefire’s VPN ensures us that that all corporate and patient information is secure at all times."
Fran Lorion, CIO of the Visiting Nurses Association of Boston
Summary: The hospital liaisons are now able to work with a simple application that enables the VNA of Boston to save time, decrease the number of phone calls, and allow headquarters to do other referral work – without compromising patient and corporate information. This new, secure streamlined process improved business, and maintains customer satisfaction by complying with federal security mandates.
Bluefire 1040 Hull Street Suite 101 Baltimore, MD 21230 Tel: 1-410-637-8160
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