Cokato Manor provides skilled nursing care for older adults in their Cokato, Minnesota facility. They are committed to delivering physical, occupational, and speech therapy in a caring environment. Cokato Manor uses MatrixCare’s hosted solution.
Challenge
Cokato Manor (operated by Cokato Charitable Trust) has seen their IT requirements change significantly over the past several years. Approximately 75 staff members access the solution from multiple locations.
With HIPAA compliance being a major driver in protecting patient information, they needed an IT company with experience working through HIPAA security requirements. They also needed to continue addressing critical issues such as proactive network attention and security.
Secur-Serv Steps In
Cokato Manor’s first step toward proactive IT management and security was to select Secur-Serv to provide ongoing network systems maintenance, monitoring, and administrative services and onsite hardware repair.
As a first step, Secur-Serv deployed monitoring software on all of Cokato’s systems. Secur-Serv’s thorough review of their network included:
- Antivirus status, such as license information and virus definition dates
- Operating systems and security update status
- Network and firewall review for security and functionality
- Backup procedures including Disaster Recovery media and backups
- System error log review
- Network mapping and information about basic system functionality
The review discovered current and potential network security issues that could put Cokato at risk with extended downtime and security breaches. Secur-Serv technical staff addressed the issues and developed a strategy to ensure continual system access and avoid data breaches. Secur-Serv proactively reduces downtime by addressing many hardware failures and virus/malware issues.
Cokato staff can now access reporting to help manage their users. Combined with Secur-Serv’s regularly scheduled network reviews, they can focus on patient care and running their business. Through Secur-Serv’s partnership IT best-practice approach, Cokato Manor now operates with confidence that their IT and security systems maintain patient confidentiality under HIPAA without interrupting their crucial patient care.
