A 2021 IDG research study found that cloud security is among the biggest IT challenges that healthcare organizations are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the study, the increased demand for network resiliency and cloud security stems from the uptick in virtual doctor visits, pop-up clinics, and new work-from-home requirements. Ninety-five percent of respondents reported an increase in network traffic since March 2020 and ninety-two percent of respondents reported increasing network bandwidth capacity to accommodate an influx of connected medical devices.
Although the pandemic has put a strain on network bandwidth and increased network vulnerabilities, the shift has also led to a collective approach for both reliability and security across healthcare organizations. In the study, seventy-one percent of respondents considered it highly important to integrate network solutions with security policies while sixty percent of respondents indicated that having a single security architecture delivering consistent security policies across multiple locations is highly important.
Now more than ever, secure messaging and digital document delivery platforms are vital to fuel healthcare innovation and streamline patient care coordination. Cloud-based, compliant fax solutions not only make it possible for healthcare professionals to keep pace with the myriad of information being transmitted every day, but they also offer more security and reliability than email and legacy platforms ever could.
As cybersecurity threats and data breaches show no signs of slowing down, healthcare organizations must mitigate any potential vulnerabilities from the tools and technology utilized within their practice. When choosing a cloud fax service, it’s important for healthcare organizations to take HITRUST CSF certified communication services into consideration to ensure that all regulatory compliance standards for data protection are met.
For guaranteed data protection, etherFAX is HITRUST CSF certified, PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, and SOC 2 compliant. Multiple defense-in-depth strategies have also been implemented into etherFAX’s patented technology including two-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption to ensure that patient data and business-critical information are safeguarded at all times.
With over six million connected endpoints, the etherFAX Secure Exchange Network (SEN) is the world’s largest compliant fax network supporting every major fax server, application, and fax-enabled device. Leveraging hybrid cloud technology, etherFAX SEN provides 100 percent secure communications and the ability to transmit high resolution, encrypted documents without having two modems hissing at each other.
In addition to security and compliance, etherFAX guarantees reliability and speed. For example, a 50-page, 600dpi color document can securely sent within seconds instead of hours. This enables doctors to exchange medical records and PHI information faster than ever before.
To ensure organizations never experience a busy signal, etherFAX’s Disaster Recovery (DR) solution manages high-volume, peak overflow fax operations. As an infrastructure-as-a-service platform with built-in redundancy, etherFAX DR can be easily configured to provide immediate failover of fax communications, ensuring uptime when existing telephony equipment fails, such as fax boards, PRI lines, servers and applications.
Interested in learning how your organization can leverage a secure exchange network to improve patient care and business processes? Let’s chat.