What a medical practice's IT has to handle
A practice day depends on a chain of systems: the EHR or practice management platform, e-prescribing, lab and imaging interfaces, the patient portal, phones, fax, card readers at the front desk, and the internet connection that ties them together. Clinical staff move between exam rooms and shared workstations all day, so sign-in has to be fast without being shared.
Healthcare is also one of the sectors ransomware groups target most, because downtime in a practice is painful and patient records are valuable. A practice that cannot open its schedule or charts has to turn patients away. Good healthcare IT starts with prevention and ends with a plan for the day the system is gone.
- Separate accounts for every staff member instead of a shared front desk login
- Exam room and shared computers that lock when staff step away
- Secure ways to email and text patients
- Medical devices and guest Wi-Fi on separate networks from the systems that hold charts
- Encrypted laptops and phones that can be wiped if one is lost
What HIPAA requires from your IT
The HIPAA Security Rule applies to every covered entity that stores or sends electronic protected health information, from a solo practice to a hospital. It asks for three kinds of safeguards: administrative (a risk analysis, policies, training, and someone responsible for security), physical (who can reach servers, workstations and devices) and technical (unique user IDs, access controls, audit logs, and protection for data in transit). Our HIPAA compliance checklist breaks these down item by item.
The risk analysis is where many practices fall short, and it is one of the items federal regulators cite most often after a breach. It has to be accurate and thorough, not a template with your name on it, and it should be updated when your systems change. See why every provider needs a security risk assessment.
A proposed update to the Security Rule was published in January 2025. It would make several safeguards, including encryption and multi-factor authentication, explicitly required. As of our October 2026 review it had not been finalized, so the current rule still applies. Multi-factor authentication is already standard for every GlobeVM client.
Business associates, including your IT provider
Any company that handles protected health information for your practice is a business associate under HIPAA: billing services, cloud and email providers, and your IT company. Each one must sign a business associate agreement before it gets access, and you should keep the signed copies with your HIPAA records. Our guide what is a BAA explains what the agreement should cover.
Check the tools your staff already use, too. Email, video visits, cloud storage and AI tools each need the right business plan and a signed agreement before patient data goes into them. A free consumer version of a tool rarely qualifies.
Keeping clinic hours running
Even well-run systems go down: an internet outage, an EHR vendor problem, a failed server, a ransomware attack. The practices that cope are the ones that planned for it. That means EHR downtime procedures staff have actually practiced, an offline copy of the next day's schedule, a backup internet connection, and backups of local systems that are tested by restoring them, not just by checking for a green light.
We monitor client systems around the clock, so many problems are caught before the first patient arrives. When something breaks during clinic hours, you reach a person in Los Angeles in under 15 minutes, and if the fix needs hands, an engineer comes to your office.
How GlobeVM supports a medical practice
On top of our standard security, practices get HIPAA risk analysis and documentation, secure email and messaging, tested backups for any patient data stored on site, separate networks for clinical devices, and short security training for clinical and front desk staff. We also act as your single contact with software and equipment vendors, so you are not chasing three companies when something fails.
If you have an IT person on staff, we can work alongside them through co-managed IT, covering after-hours monitoring, security and compliance work while they handle day-to-day needs.