Bradford Networks Helps Healthcare Organizations Manage Networks, BYOD Policies

Bradford Networks, which enables secure network access for corporate-issued and personal mobile devices, recently announced that more than 30 healthcare organizations have implemented its Network Sentry solution to address security issues brought on by organizations that have bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies.

Bradford notes on its website that only nine percent of most organizations feel they have full knowledge of whom is accessing their corporate resources with personal mobile devices, yet more than 60 percent allow staff to bring their own devices. 

Which is fine if you own a steel-making factory or a bakery, but in the healthcare world, where security and confidentiality are paramount, this can provide many problems. Bradford Networks says in a press release that it has had experience setting up secure networks in the education field and now has moved its expertise to healthcare to strengthen security and comply with new regulatory requirements.

The company lists among its customers, Columbia University Medical Center, Methodist Health System, and Parkland Health & Hospital System, among others.

With all healthcare organizations needing to move to electronic health records, and the proliferation of both personal devices and medical equipment on the network, hospitals have new challenges for managing and securing this information, the press release reports.

"While iPads and other mobile devices are an important component to providing convenience and accessibility to clinicians and staff, this cannot come at the expense of security or compliance," said John Bozer, director of information systems for Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which recently selected Bradford's Network Access Control (NAC) solution to provide secure network access for hospital-owned iPads used by clinicians and other staff, while allowing guest access only for personal iPads and mobile devices. "With Bradford, we are able to provide secure and convenient network access for personal devices while achieving compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA and HITECH."

Bradford's Network Sentry NAC solution automatically identifies and profiles all devices and all users on a network, providing complete visibility and control and can differentiate between corporate and personal assets, provisioning network access accordingly, according to the press release.

The solution also provides for, locates and tracks IP-enabled medical devices to ensure they remain secure, while securing guest and wireless networks to accommodate the increasing number of mobile devices used by administrators, clinicians, patients and visitors.

But as convenient, and necessary, as BYOD is, organizations “should know that such moves come at a price,” according to Brad Reed, who explains that “a new survey from Osterman Research shows the trend toward allowing multiple device types onto companies’ IT networks is leading to significant increases in resources to mobile device management, as companies will need more than four full-time workers per 1,000 devices in 2012, up from 3.6 full-time workers per 1,000 devices this year and 2.9 full-time IT workers per 1,000 mobile devices last year.”

And that’s not all. Extra mobile device management workers means higher costs for companies and IT spending is projected to go from $294 per user in 2012 to $339 in 2013.

So healthcare organizations may need to turn to companies like Bradford Networks to manage their networks as cost-effectively as possible.