5 IT Mistakes That Put Healthcare Practices at Risk
by Jon Lober | NOC Technology
Who has time for tech?
Running a healthcare practice means juggling patient care, staffing, insurance headaches, and so much more.
IT usually falls somewhere near the bottom of that list. The problem is not that practice owners don't care about technology; it's that they just don't have enough hours in the day already. Unfortunately, many practices get blindsided when something goes wrong, because the consequences of IT shortcuts in healthcare are uniquely severe.
A retail store that loses its network for a day has a bad day. A medical practice that loses access to patient records has a compliance crisis.
5 Common Mistakes
Here are five IT mistakes we see healthcare practices make repeatedly—and what to do instead.
1. Treating HIPAA Compliance Like a Checkbox
Of course you know HIPAA. You may have even signed a Business Associate Agreement with their IT provider. But signing paperwork is not the same as being compliant.
Real HIPAA compliance means your systems are actively monitored, your data is encrypted both at rest and in transit, access controls limit who can see what, and you have documented policies that your staff actually follows. It also means conducting regular risk assessments—not just when an auditor asks for one.
The Office for Civil Rights has been increasing enforcement actions against small practices.
The assumption that "they only go after big hospitals" hasn't been true for years. Fines for small practices have ranged from $50,000 to over $1 million depending on the severity and whether the practice demonstrated willful neglect.
If your IT provider can't show you a current risk assessment and explain exactly how your patient data is protected, that's a red flag. A layered approach to cybersecurity is essential for any practice handling protected health information.
2. Running Critical Systems on Consumer-Grade Equipment
There's a meaningful difference between the $400 router from Best Buy and a business-class firewall. Consumer networking equipment lacks the security features, monitoring capabilities, and reliability that a healthcare environment requires.
We regularly encounter practices using home-grade Wi-Fi routers, consumer antivirus software, and personal email accounts for sending patient information. Each of these creates a vulnerability, and in combination, they create an environment where a data breach is less a question of "if" than "when."
Business-class equipment does cost more upfront, but provides centralized management, automatic security updates, intrusion detection, and the kind of logging that HIPAA auditors expect to see. For practices across the greater St. Louis area, making this investment is foundational to protecting both patients and the business itself.
3. No Tested Backup and Recovery Plan
Having backups is good. Knowing your backups actually work is better. Many practices have some form of backup running, whether it's a USB drive plugged into the server or a cloud sync tool. But very few have tested whether they can actually restore their systems from those backups in a reasonable timeframe.
Here's the scenario: a practice experiences a ransomware attack or a server failure. They call their IT person. The IT person goes to restore from backup and discovers the backup:
- hasn't been running for three months
- the backup files are corrupted
- or the restore process takes 72 hours
Meanwhile, the practice can't access patient records, can't bill insurance, and can't see scheduled patients.
Disaster recovery planning should include regular backup testing, documented recovery procedures, and clear timelines for how quickly you can be back up and running. Your practice should know its Recovery Time Objective (RTO; how long you can afford to be down) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO; how much data you can afford to lose). If those terms are new to you, that's a conversation worth having with your IT support provider.
4. Ignoring Staff Training
Technology can only do so much when someone on your team clicks a phishing link. And healthcare practices are prime targets for phishing because attackers know medical records are worth 10 to 40 times more than credit card numbers on the black market.
Staff training doesn't need to be a day-long seminar. Short, regular training sessions actually work better than annual marathons. Monthly phishing simulations, quick tips during staff meetings, and clear policies about what to do when something looks suspicious all contribute to a security-aware culture.
Get started now: download our SLAM poster for your breakroom today.
The most common entry point for healthcare data breaches is still email. A front desk employee who knows how to spot a fake DocuSign request or a spoofed insurance portal login is worth more than any single piece of security software. Practices providing managed IT services to their teams typically include ongoing security awareness training as part of the package.
5. IT Provider Doesn't Understand Healthcare
General IT support and healthcare IT support are not the same thing. A provider who mostly works with retail or professional services companies may not understand HIPAA requirements, EHR system integrations, medical device networking, or the specific compliance documentation your practice needs.
Healthcare IT requires understanding how systems like Epic, Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, or NextGen interact with your network infrastructure. It means knowing that certain medical devices need network segmentation. It means being familiar with the specific backup requirements for electronic health records and understanding how to handle a breach notification under HIPAA's timeline requirements.
For healthcare practices in greater STL finding IT support that combines technical capability with healthcare-specific knowledge makes the difference between proactive protection and reactive scrambling. An IT consultant who understands your business will frame every technology decision around how it affects patient care, compliance, and your bottom line.
What Good Healthcare IT Actually Looks Like
When IT is working well in a healthcare practice, you barely notice it. Systems are up. Staff can access what they need. Patient data is protected. Updates happen outside of business hours. And when something does go wrong, there's a clear plan and a team that responds quickly.
That doesn't happen by accident. It happens when a practice invests in the right infrastructure, partners with an IT provider who understands healthcare, and treats IT security as an ongoing process rather than a one-time project.
If you're running a healthcare practice in the St. Louis metro area and you're not confident your IT setup meets these standards, it's worth having a conversation. The cost of getting it right is always less than the cost of getting it wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Healthcare IT involves strict regulatory requirements under HIPAA, specialized electronic health record (EHR) systems, medical device networking, and heightened data protection standards. Your IT provider needs to understand compliance documentation, breach notification timelines, and how clinical workflows depend on technology. A general IT company may keep your computers running but miss critical compliance gaps that expose your practice to fines and liability.
At minimum, quarterly. Many managed IT providers test backups monthly and perform full disaster recovery simulations annually. The key is verifying that your backups are not only running but that the data can actually be restored within your practice's acceptable downtime window. Untested backups provide false confidence.
A HIPAA risk assessment is a documented evaluation of how your practice stores, transmits, and protects patient health information. It identifies vulnerabilities and outlines how you address them. Yes, every practice that handles electronic protected health information (ePHI) is required to conduct one, regardless of size. The Office for Civil Rights has specifically stated that practice size does not exempt you from this requirement.
Costs vary widely, but studies consistently show the average healthcare data breach costs over $400 per compromised record. For a practice with 5,000 patient records, that math gets uncomfortable quickly. Beyond direct fines, costs include breach notification, credit monitoring for affected patients, legal fees, lost patient trust, and potential lawsuits. Investing in proper cybersecurity protections is significantly less expensive than recovering from a breach.
Yes. NOC Technology serves healthcare practices across the greater St. Louis metro area. We understand the specific compliance, security, and operational requirements that medical practices face and build IT strategies around protecting patient data while keeping your practice running smoothly. Contact us to discuss your practice's needs.
