Public Access vs. Medical Privacy

Clients have become accustomed to having Internet access in most settings. Most organizations utilize the Internet, making public Internet access an incremental cost. When providing access, it is important that the organization’s information is secured. This is true more so in many industries.

The health care industry has many privacy concerns, chief among them is HIPAA. A small network of rehabilitation facilities with wellness centers wanted to provide Internet access to wellness customers. Public Internet access would keep the facilities competitive with other health clubs. At the same, this network did not want add the expense of an additional network.

Initially, the facilities were setup with a dual consumer router configuration. The outer router acted as the public network for the facility and the internal router protected medical information. As the network has moved to EHR and cloud-based services, the network equipment has been upgraded to provide a more robust wireless network with greater security.