Saluda Nursing & Rehab Center is a 176-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation care facility in Saluda County, South Carolina. The private, non-profit organization is the designated skilled nursing facility for a county of 16,000 residents.
The majority of patients at the center are permanent residents who cannot live on their own or in assisted living. They require skilled nursing care 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Other patients go to the center after being discharged from a hospital to get physical rehabilitation services and then return home.
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Company snapshot
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- Opened in 1968
- 250 employees
- One of the most extensive skilled nursing facilities in South Carolina
- Paubox Email Suite Premium customer since 2018
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Industry
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Nursing and rehabilitation
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Use case
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Email PHI to government offices, hospitals, and doctors in a HIPAA compliant manner
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Goals
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- Send outbound secure email with no extra steps
- Provide robust inbound email security protection from phishing, malware, and email bomb attacks
- Block sensitive information from being emailed without authorization
- Improve workflow and lower costs
- Ensure 100% HIPAA compliance with any email client or device
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Used solution
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Favorite features
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- Easy implementation
- Emails encrypted by default - no change in workflow required
- Protection from spam and email cyberattacks
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Challenge
When Paul Pendley joined the Saluda Nursing & Rehab Center as IT Administrator, one of his first tasks was to make sure staff used an email system that met the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
“The center had an incentive in that they needed to do something to meet HIPAA requirements,” Pendley explained. There were no standards or encryption for email. People were using personal email addresses.”
Although many of the center’s emails are for intraoffice communications, staff often send emails to government offices, hospitals, and doctors. Those emails often contain protected health information (PHI) that is covered by HIPAA regulations.
Email phishing attacks are a big problem in the healthcare industry. Though no one at Saluda had been the victim of any phishing or hacking attacks, Pendley knew he needed to be proactive and act quickly to shut down that potential threat as well.
Solution
After Pendley identified his needs, he began to look for solutions. He talked to several state offices and private vendors before settling on Paubox Email Suite Premium.
“I wanted a company that did just email security and encryption,” Pendley explained. “I like companies that do one thing very well.”
Paubox Email Suite Premium is a HIPAA compliant secure email solution that does not require users to log in through a portal. Every email is encrypted—all a user needs to do is click “send.” It can be integrated with any commonly used email platform, including G Suite, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Exchange, and it works with most mobile devices.
Paubox Email Suite Premium also comes with inbound security tools which block email threats with advanced email security features like ExecProtect, which immediately identifies and quarantines attacks, never letting them get to the inbox.
In addition, the Premium level also provides email DLP (data loss prevention) which prevents unauthorized parties from accidentally or maliciously emailing data whose disclosure could put the organization at risk.
Paubox customers have the added security of knowing that our products are HITRUST CSF certified, the gold standard for HIPAA compliance in the healthcare industry.
After Pendley decided to use Paubox, getting the system up and running only took a few days after signing a business associate agreement (BAA) with Paubox, included for every customer.
More than 27,000 emails encrypted in one year
Pendley saw that he had made the correct decision to choose Paubox Email Suite Premium as soon as it was up and running. Over the past twelve months, Paubox has encrypted 27,064 emails sent by the Saluda Nursing & Rehab Center staff.
Pendley says one reason for Paubox’s success at his company is its ease of use. “The process of sending emails stays the same,” he explained. “Our users do not have to do anything to encrypt email. it’s just like they are using their normal email.”
Pendley says Paubox’s spam filters routinely do a great job of blocking unwanted email while letting legitimate emails come through. Paubox blocked 627 spam emails during the past 12 months.
“The Paubox spam filters work remarkably well,” Pendley noted. “They are very accurate. Not much spam gets through and not many real messages are blocked accidentally.”
To ensure HIPAA compliance, state agencies regularly audit healthcare facilities. Though Saluda’s 2020 audit has been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pendley says that when the audit does occur, there will be no problems.
“We have to be ready for a state audit at any time for HIPAA compliance,” he explained. “I am confident that we will pass the audit whenever the state does come.”
