Partners Healthcare Launches Courion PasswordCourier

Business Wire, Oct 15, 2007

Leading Healthcare Provider Tightens Security and Improves Patient Privacy by Implementing Best of Breed Password Management Solution

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Courion[R] Corporation, the provisioning experts for results-driven operations, today announced that Partners Healthcare has successfully completed the implementation of Courion's PasswordCourier[R] password provisioning solution, providing a foundation for the healthcare provider's best practices identity management security infrastructure. Since implementing PasswordCourier, more than 80 percent of Partners Healthcare employees have reset and strengthened passwords. The company expects 100 percent of its employee population will successfully reset and strengthen passwords by the end of the year.

With a complex internal technology environment consisting of multiple clinical applications and supporting systems, Partners needed to implement a best practices identity management strategy that incorporated stringent password management standards that periodically expired old passwords and strengthened existing passwords in order to meet rigorous audit requirements and ensure patient privacy. By implementing PasswordCourier, Partners provides its diverse workforce, which includes clinical and administrative employees, students and a large non-employee population, with the ability to change passwords from anywhere in the world via the internet or through a web-based portal.

"This successful implementation enables us to take a best-of-breed approach to password management. PasswordCourier provides our organization with the ability to identify those accounts where the passwords have not been changed for some time, and identify and remove orphaned accounts that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks," said Mary Buonanno, corporate manager for IS support services. "We are proactively addressing concerns of identity theft and patient data leakage by implementing a password solution that puts us in line with HIPPA best practices."

As part of its commitment to a best practices security strategy, Partners periodically conducts internal and external audits to evaluate corporate security and determine areas that could be enhanced to strengthen security practices. Password Management has been cited in past audits as a potential vulnerability in the security infrastructure. With the implementation of PasswordCourier, Partners proactively addressed password management before it became a compliance and security risk, preventing accidental access to applications that could lead to identify theft or patient data leakage.

"Password management is a critical component of any best practice based identity management program, ensuring that the workforce, regardless of location, has the access to applications required to do their job effectively," said John Grimm, director of director of healthcare market strategy, Courion. "PasswordCourier is part of a complete suite of solutions focused on driving security and compliance. With this implementation, Partners is continuing its policy of providing a best practices approach to identity management and security."

ABOUT PARTNERS HEALTHCARE

Partners HealthCare was founded in 1994 by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Partners is an integrated health care system that offers patients a continuum of coordinated high-quality care. The system includes primary care and specialty physicians, community hospitals, the two founding academic medical centers, specialty facilities, community health centers, and other health-related entities. Partners HealthCare is a non-profit organization.

ABOUT COURION

Courion is the Enterprise Provisioning and Access Compliance Expert for results-driven organizations. Built on market-proven technology, Courion's software solutions streamline operations and automate business processes to simultaneously achieve cost, security and service quality results. Courion's innovative approach eliminates the complexity and barriers to provisioning and compliance adoption, resulting in an unparalleled track record of customer success. Courion was recently named to IT Week's 2006 list of Top 50 Technology Innovators and recognized as an Info Security 2007 "Hot Company." For more information, please visit our website at www.courion.com.

Courion is a registered trademark. Enterprise Provisioning Suite is a trademark of Courion Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.