Rex Healthcare, a private not-for-profit health care system that is part of the University of North Carolina Healthcare System has rolled out a single-sign-on system to simplify access to its eight newly deployed core healthcare applications.
The organisation recognised a pressing need to streamline staff access to vital data after replacing a single legacy system in favour of eight best-of-breed commercial healthcare applications. It was apparent that forcing users to separately log into eight different applications would significantly hamper effective use of its information resources and so Rex selected CA's eTrust Single Sign-On (eTrust SSO) to provide a common login across all of these applications.
"Doctors and other hospital staff don't have the time or inclination to navigate multiple applications when they're under tremendous pressure to meet the immediate needs of their patients," said Tom Schnittker, manager of data security at Rex Healthcare.
"With CA's eTrust Single Sign-On, we have simplified technology use for all of our employees so that our patients consistently get the best possible care and our systems remain fully secured."
The healthcare provider said the single-sign-on project formed part of its ongoing strategy to comply with the forthcoming HIPAA security regulations which require certain healthcare providers, insurers, and clearinghouses to establish procedures and mechanisms to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic health information. The regulations are scheduled to take effect in April 2005.
According to Schnittker, the eTrust SSO rollout was performed over a single weekend to all 3,000 users without any disruption to critical services.
