For nearly 100 years, Barrett Hospital & HealthCare has been the heartbeat of the community in Dillon, Montana and the surrounding region. Located about 70 miles from Yellowstone National Park, the hospital’s two campuses are situated in the nation’s fourth largest county (by land area). The hospital celebrated the opening of a new facility in 2012, with a modern design and state-of-the-art equipment. Barrett was recognized as one of the nation’s top critical access hospitals in 2021.
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Company snapshot
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- Founded in 1922
- Number of locations: 2
- Paubox client since 2020
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Industry
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Use case
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Protect PHI transmitted over email while also reducing inbound security threats
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Goals
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- Provide a hassle-free way to secure outgoing email
- Protect users from display name spoofing attacks
- Reduce or eliminate viruses and phishing attacks from reaching users’ inboxes
- Make it easier for email recipients to open messages
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Used solution
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Favorite features
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- ExecProtect stops display name spoofing
- Every email is encrypted automatically
- No portals required
- Easy-to-use dashboards track outbound and inbound activity
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Challenge
As a healthcare organization, Barrett deals with protected health information (PHI) daily. Like all hospitals in the United States, it must comply with HIPAA requirements or face stiff penalties. As electronic communication becomes the preferred method of communication for more and more people, HIPAA compliant email was a must-have.
Initially, Barrett used Barracuda. However, it required email senders and recipients to jump through hoops to send and read secure emails.
“Everyone on the team was always concerned about what should be sent encrypted, and the tendency was to encrypt everything. However, a lot of times the people who are getting those secure emails can’t open them. The hassle with Barracuda was unbelievable,” said Harv Lake, IT manager for Barrett Hospital & HealthCare.
The organization was also noticing an increase in incoming security threats – including phishing attacks, viruses, and display name spoofing emails. “We were getting a lot of phishing emails, as well as emails spoofing our CEO’s name or our HR department,” Lake explained.
Barrett needed an email encryption and inbound security solution that made it easier – not harder – for the organization to secure PHI and defend against threats. “Things like portals and logins really made things more difficult for our recipients. As we all know, people love having lots of passwords to manage,” Lake joked.
Solution
When Lake learned about Paubox Email Suite Plus, it seemed too good to be true, he noted. “I said, ‘let me look at the details, because I didn’t believe it could be that easy.’”
Paubox offers zero-step email encryption, with no portals or logins required. Every email is encrypted automatically, without senders or recipients having to take action. Paubox uses TLS encryption and all of our products are HITRUST CSF certified, the gold standard of compliance in the healthcare industry. Paubox Email Suite Plus also includes our robust inbound security solutions, including ExecProtect, which stops display name spoofing in its tracks.
“ExecProtect has been great. We’re always concerned about protecting our organization from getting hacked, and ExecProtect has totally eliminated the display name spoofing problems,” Lake said. “It’s nice to see that there aren’t a bunch of emails floating around supposedly from our CEO offering gift cards.”
Paubox Email Suite Plus was very easy for the Barrett team to implement. “It worked with Office 365, and everything integrated smoothly,” Lake added.
Results
Barrett is realizing significant time and cost savings by using Paubox Email Suite Plus. Because security threats are stopped before they reach users’ inboxes, the IT team has far fewer problems to fix. It is also saving the organization money by reducing the risk of a costly HIPAA violation.
“It’s nice to know that the things coming in are meant to be here and whatever is going out is encrypted,” Lake confirmed. “At Barrett, everything we do is focused on making the patient’s experience better. Having the knowledge that their information is secure when it is sent or received helps to improve their experience by removing that worry.”
The results speak for themselves. Since November 2020, Barrett has sent more than 23,000 encrypted emails from 180 email addresses. In addition to securing outgoing emails, Paubox Email Suite Plus has blocked 11,650 spam messages, 371 viruses, and 160 phishing attacks.
Overall, Lake explained, Paubox checks all the boxes for Barrett Hospital & HealthCare. “I would recommend Paubox for three reasons: it’s safe, it’s simple, and it’s secure.”
