Protecting what matters

As an independently operated practice, the Clinic managed the same complex demands as larger organizations, but with fewer resources and tighter operational constraints. Its leadership remained focused on delivering consistent care, supporting staff and maintaining financial stability. In that context, cybersecurity can be difficult to prioritize, particularly when limited visibility makes it more challenging to assess whether existing safeguards are enough.

Rather than waiting for those risks to grow, The Clinic took action.

With an in-house IT environment that had developed over time, security had not previously been a regular focus. Leadership recognized the need for a more complete understanding of the environment and took steps to identify where exposure had grown beyond what they had realized.

The Cyberthreat Vulnerability Assessment uncovered a major threat in the Clinic’s environment: obsolete and end-of-life operating systems and hardware. This issue was assigned a “High” impact level. But what was at stake?

This vulnerability could have allowed an attacker to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and gain initial access to The Clinic’s network. The Assessment pinpointed this as a key weakness that, if exploited, could have led to significant breaches, including ransomware attacks and data exfiltration. The “Probability of Breach, Exfiltration or Ransom” was rated as “High” with a “Low” difficulty for attackers, underscoring the severity of this particular threat. Because of its thoroughness, the Assessment exposed this vulnerability and The Clinic worked alongside Altera’s experts to remediate this issue.

“We’ve been working with Altera for years and the experience has been consistently positive—honest, data-driven, well researched and forward-thinking. We’ve stayed closely involved in the approvals and decision-making, yet the team has also taken the lead and handled the work seamlessly. Their best practice recommendations give us confidence we won’t end up back where we started. It’s created a strong sense of trust, and the results have been nothing short of phenomenal.”

CFO, The Clinic

The Clinic’s leadership understood how critical a strong IT foundation was for their staff, providers and ultimately their patients. “We realized we needed to evolve and become more strategic, thoughtful and intentional in how we approached IT security. We needed a true partner. With security becoming a major concern within healthcare, we felt it was critical to perform the necessary assessment to determine where we were at and that’s where the partnership with Altera’s Managed Services began,” said the Clinic’s CFO. Their longstanding TouchWorks EHR relationship provided the confidence and familiarity that made deepening the partnership a natural progression.

Turning risk into readiness

The Managed Services team was able to shine a light into the dark corners of The Clinic’s environment and uncover common risks seen across the industry. With deprecated equipment, firewall vulnerabilities and identity management that wasn’t kept up to date, Managed Services began by addressing specific areas like identity management, strengthening password policies, implementing multifactor authentication and cleaning up privileged access.

Through an internal-out firewall assessment, the Managed Services team uncovered exposures that had gone undetected. As part of the assessment, the Clinic also received a prioritized roadmap that helped leadership understand which actions to take first and how to address risk across each of these areas in a more structured way.

“The outcomes have been fantastic. The assessment gave us a level of visibility we’d never had before—not just into our systems but into what they meant for our business and our risk. For the first time, we had a solid grasp of our environment. Moving through the recommended remediation has brought a real sense of confidence and peace of mind.”

– CFO

Planting the seeds for a stronger future

The Clinic went from having no unified remediation roadmap to a governed security program with complete infrastructure, mailbox and access assessments. Centralized patching, anchored by a GPO baseline, replaced years of ad hoc processes. What had once been a hidden, unknown IT system is now a secure, fully visible environment positioned for real risk reduction.

The Clinic can continue focusing on the community it serves while working alongside Managed Services to strengthen its IT and security posture. With clearer visibility into its environment, the Clinic and its internal team can continue enhancing patient operations, workflows and the overall patient experience.

“We’ve really valued the forward-thinking mindset. Managed Services has planted the seeds for what our future could look like and that vision gives us real hope. It’s a powerful reflection of the strategic nature of this partnership,” the CFO said.

Smaller hospitals and clinics often face the same demands with smaller teams and budgets, but together with Managed Services, they can plant the seeds for a more secure and strategic future.