Reducing Healthcare IT Risk, Downtime & Compliance Costs

Secure Access, Cybersecurity, and Compliance for Healthcare

NovaCore Systems: Cutting Healthcare IT Risk, Downtime, and Cost

Healthcare organizations rely on continuous, reliable access to electronic health records (EHRs), billing platforms, and clinical applications. When access fails—or security is compromised—the impact goes far beyond IT. Patient care is disrupted, compliance risks increase, and costs escalate rapidly.
NovaCore Systems reduces healthcare IT risk, cost, and downtime with a seamless platform combining secure application access, cybersecurity, compliance automation, and backup and recovery.

The Real Pain Points Facing Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare IT challenges are rarely caused by a single tool or system. Most incidents stem from how access, security, and compliance are implemented and managed together.
Common pain points include:
  • Insecure remote access to EHR and clinical systems
  • Ransomware-driven downtime affecting patient care
  • Compliance gaps that surface during audits or insurance reviews
  • High operational costs tied to legacy infrastructure
  • Poor user experience that slows clinicians and staff
These issues are not theoretical—they are well-documented across the healthcare industry.

Remote Access: A Major Source of Healthcare Data Breaches

Healthcare data breaches frequently begin with remote access vulnerabilities.
A major example is the 2024 Change Healthcare incident, where attackers gained initial access through a Citrix portal that lacked multi-factor authentication (MFA). That single weakness led to lateral movement across systems, data theft, ransomware deployment, and widespread operational shutdowns.
Common weak points include:
  • Exposed RDP or SSH services
  • VPNs without MFA
  • Third-party vendor access with excessive privileges
  • Shared or unmanaged user accounts
Once attackers gain access, they can move laterally, exfiltrate patient data, and deploy ransomware—turning a small access gap into a large-scale incident.

Ransomware Downtime: The Hidden Cost to Patient Care

Ransomware in healthcare doesn’t just affect IT systems—it interrupts care delivery.
Industry data shows:
  • Healthcare ransomware downtime costs average around $1.9 million per day.
  • Individual practices often exceed $1.3 million per incident, including recovery, forensics, and legal costs.
These costs come from:
  • Lost revenue during system outages
  • Emergency IT and incident response
  • Legal, forensic, and regulatory expenses
  • Reputational damage and loss of patient trust
During downtime, staff may lose access to:
  • Scheduling systems
  • Patient charts
  • Billing and insurance verification
For healthcare organizations, downtime is not just an inconvenience—it is a patient safety risk.

Common HIPAA Violations That Increase Risk

Many healthcare compliance issues are not caused by sophisticated attacks, but by everyday operational gaps.
Some of the most common HIPAA violations include:
  • Accessing patient records without a valid reason (snooping)
  • Failure to perform an organization-wide risk analysis
  • Failure to manage identified security risks
  • Lack of a formal, ongoing risk management process
These issues often stem from poor access controls, limited visibility, and manual compliance processes.

Secure Access to EHR and Clinical Systems with NovaCore Connect

NovaCore Connect, powered by Parallels RAS, provides a secure, centralized way for healthcare staff to access EHR and clinical applications—without exposing systems directly to the internet.
Instead of relying on traditional VPNs, RDP, or legacy VDI platforms, NovaCore Connect:
  • Delivers applications and desktops securely from a centralized environment
  • Enforces role-based access and MFA
  • Reduces reliance on unmanaged endpoints
  • Limits data exposure by keeping applications centralized
This approach reduces the attack surface while improving access reliability for clinicians and staff.

A Smarter, Cost-Effective Alternative to Traditional VDI

Traditional VDI platforms often introduce hidden costs that healthcare organizations don’t anticipate:
  • High infrastructure and licensing expenses
  • Complex management and maintenance
  • Poor performance is impacting clinician productivity
  • Slow onboarding and offboarding of staff and vendors
NovaCore Connect  offers a more efficient alternative by:
  • Reducing infrastructure complexity
  • Lowering licensing and operational overhead
  • Improving application performance and user experience
  • Supporting faster, safer access for remote and on-site staff
Better performance and usability directly translate to less downtime, fewer support issues, and lower operational costs.

Cybersecurity Focused on Risk Reduction, Not Tools

Cybersecurity in healthcare should reduce real-world risk—not just add software.
NovaCore Systems focuses on:
  • Strong authentication and access control
  • Limiting lateral movement within environments
  • Monitoring and hardening exposed services
  • Reducing third-party and vendor access risk
By addressing the root causes of breaches—access and visibility—healthcare organizations can prevent small issues from becoming major incidents.

Compliance Without the Manual Burden

Compliance is often treated as a once-a-year scramble. That approach is expensive and stressful.
By integrating compliance automation through Vanta, healthcare organizations can:
  • Continuously monitor security controls.
  • Reduce manual evidence collection.
  • Maintain ongoing audit readiness.
  • Identify gaps early—before audits or incidents.
This saves time, reduces internal labor costs, and lowers the risk of surprise findings during reviews.

Backup and Recovery: The Last Line of Defense

When prevention fails, recovery speed matters.
Healthcare organizations need backups that are:
  • Reliable
  • Secure from ransomware
  • Regularly tested for restoration.
Untested or misconfigured backups often fail during real incidents, extending downtime and increasing costs. A proper backup and recovery strategy ensures continuity of care even during security events.

A Coordinated Approach to Healthcare IT Risk

Healthcare IT systems don’t fail in isolation—and neither should the solution.
By combining:
  • Secure application access (NovaCore Connect)
  • Cybersecurity controls
  • Compliance automation
  • Backup and recovery
NovaCore Systems helps healthcare organizations:
  • Reduce breach risk
  • Minimize downtime
  • Improve performance and usability.
  • Lower operational and compliance costs
This integrated approach allows healthcare teams to focus on patient care—while technology quietly supports, protects, and scales with them.

About the Author

Darnell Hudson is the founder of NovaCore Systems and works directly with secure application delivery, cybersecurity, compliance, and infrastructure. He helps healthcare organizations address access risk, prevent security incidents, and maintain compliance through practical, systems-based approaches rather than one-off tools.