Securing healthcare data can be pricey. That’s the reality of operating in an industry with highly sensitive Protected Health Information (PHI) governed by HIPAA and HITRUST frameworks. As healthcare organizations grow and scale, their complex cloud environments must be able to do the same.
Healthcare is an industry that demands flexibility. Organizations serving people with urgent health concerns have to be nimble, as it can be tough to predict exactly where resources will need to be funneled at any given moment. Those conditions make growth a particularly unique challenge.
Meet EAP Expert.
The EAP industry helps organizations provide confidential support services to their employees to help them manage challenges that impact their work, mental health, and well-being.
Cloudticity customer, EAP Expert, is a healthcare technology company with the premier application for helping the Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) nationwide run more efficiently, save time and money, and provide a great user experience. For over 25 years, EAP Expert has been helping EAP services scale securely while continuing to deliver reliable service to their users. EAP Expert helps companies provide employees with the resources they need to stay healthy and facilitates activities such as large group discussions following a traumatic event or 1:1 virtual therapy sessions for employees experiencing severe stress.
Scalability requires affordable data storage.
EAP Expert found itself needing a more affordable data storage solution as its team looked to expand their services into new regions. As they worked to scale up, they found that increased memory or storage capacity on an on-premises server could cost thousands of dollars and require them to upgrade their physical data storage infrastructure.
For an industry that is constantly developing new resources to better care for employees, this diversion of resources can hinder growth and prevent organizations from meeting the demand for expanded care. EAP program access needs to easily scale during peak demand, such as a crisis or company initiative. And, as organizations grow, so does the volume of case files and session notes that need to be securely stored. Poorly optimized storage leads to higher costs as old records build up.
Counselors, HR teams, and providers also need fast access to case notes, referrals, and reports. Fragmented storage systems can delay service speeds and frustrate employees. All of these operational details determine how effective the program truly is.
On a human level EAP Expert needed ample, optimized, affordable storage to continue to protect patients' sensitive health data, while also being able to provide support to more employees in need.
Find a partner that breathes healthcare.
EAP Expert enlisted the help of two different managed service providers (MSPs) to build and maintain a new cloud environment in AWS. Through AWS the company enjoyed the ability to easily scale with the click of a few buttons and expand to additional regions.
But despite this efficiency, EAP Expert discovered that the compliance and security demands of the healthcare industry were too specific for an MSP without healthcare experience. They needed someone with a deep understanding of healthcare requirements who could secure their cloud both today and for the future. They needed a team that would support the specialized demands of a HIPAA-protected organization.
EAP Expert enlisted Cloudticity to transform their cloud environment and double the size of their AWS footprint. The team deployed Cloudticity Oxygen™, to continuously monitor cost, availability, security, and compliance events in its AWS environment. Cloudticity also audited EAP Expert’s existing environment to recommend areas to bolster security, tweak for smoother operations, and automate security and compliance reporting.
With these updates, EAP Expert was able to double the size of its AWS footprint, all while keeping its internal team the same size. The company only needed a single infrastructure person to handle day-to-day operations in its environment.
Resources saved are resources for growth.
Not only did these updates increase efficiency, they also led to thousands of dollars in cost savings per month for EAP Expert. With their newly configured AWS environment and reduced AWS bill, the company found themselves with a new surplus of personnel and financial resources ready for investment. EAP Expert looked toward projects such as moving away from the older SQL databases and using cloud-native services and to move to RDS and Aurora.
EAP Expert’s growth shows that healthcare cloud transformation requires an experienced partner to produce tangible results. With Cloudticity’s support, they reduced costs, increased their agility, and innovated faster. In an industry where a resource saved could mean one more one more employee in need receives care or therapy, this kind of efficiency is everything.
