SHARP HEALTHCARE DEPLOYS COURION’S IDENTITY MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS (email this article)

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — August 4, 2003 — Sharp HealthCare, ranked third among the nation’s “Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks,” and the top ranked health system in California for the fourth consecutive year according to Modern Healthcare magazine, has implemented identity management solutions from Courion® Corporation to reduce the cost of managing user authentication, improve the ease and speed by which Sharp HealthCare employees can access critical information technology (IT) systems and heighten data security to help comply with HIPAA privacy regulations.

Like all enterprises, Sharp HealthCare has experienced a surge in the number of computer accounts and passwords as more of its business has become automated.  Managing the increasing number of login IDs and passwords required by its employees was creating cost, security and service management challenges for Sharp HealthCare’s IT organization.  Courion’s PasswordCourier® password management software was chosen to reduce the number of passwords employees have to remember, enforce stronger passwords to strengthen authentication and access management policies and provide a fast, secure, cost-effective way to reset expired and forgotten passwords without calling Sharp HealthCare’s corporate help desk.

“Sharp is California’s healthcare leader.  We are constantly striving to reduce our costs and improve the efficiency of our operations, but our primary goal continues to be to exceed patient expectations and make the overall healthcare experience for patients, physicians, nurses and support staff nothing less than exceptional,” said Sharp HealthCare Senior Vice President and CIO William A. Spooner.  “Courion is helping us make significant improvements in the way we authenticate our employees and manage access to IT systems.  Courion’s solutions are unique in that they enable us to strengthen our security policies and improve access to our systems, while eliminating costly calls to the help desk.  This will pay off for our patients in smoother processes, improved efficiency and better ability to control our costs.  What has truly impressed us is Courion’s dedication to delivering effective technical solutions and following through on their commitments to us.”

Sharp HealthCare is an integrated healthcare delivery system operating four acute care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, three medical groups, nursing facilities and a variety of other community health education programs and related services throughout the San Diego region of Southern California.  All of Sharp HealthCare’s operating units are utilizing PasswordCourier to provide real time self-service password reset and synchronization for its employees.

“We are pleased that a leader like Sharp HealthCare has selected Courion as a strategic business partner and is working closely with our team to refine our identity management solutions for the health care industry,” said Chris Zannetos, Courion’s president and CEO.  “Sharp HealthCare inspired us to develop the first identity management connectors for some of the health care industry’s most widely used software applications.  We’re proud that our flexible connector toolkit could deliver solutions that met Sharp HealthCare’s business requirements and implementation timeframe.”

Sharp HealthCare’s employees are now using Courion’s PasswordCourier for secure self-service password reset and password synchronization across the company’s major IT systems, including Windows 2000, Active Directory and Novell NetWare.  In addition, Sharp HealthCare is also using Courion’s newly developed password management connectors for the IDX Web Framework clinical system from IDX Systems Corporation, the EmSTAT emergency department information system from A4 Health Systems and CliniComp CIS patient record system from CliniComp.  Many of Sharp HealthCare’s 11,000 employees rave about PasswordCourier’s benefits, even as the company benefits from increased security across the enterprise.  

About Courion
Courion® Corporation is a leading provider of self-service identity management solutions that help enterprises manage the access rights and credentials of employees, business partners and customers with more speed, more security and less cost.  Courion’s Identity Management Suiteä, anchored by its AccountCourier® user provisioning and PasswordCourier® password management product lines, securely automates the resolution of common operational challenges such as user account setup and deletion and password reset and synchronization.  Courion’s non-invasive, self-service architecture enforces security policies, while providing measurable cost-savings, operational efficiencies and productivity improvements.
Courion® Corporation is a leading provider of self-service identity management solutions that help enterprises manage the access rights and credentials of employees, business partners and customers with more speed, more security and less cost.  Courion’s Identity Management Suiteä, anchored by its AccountCourier® user provisioning and PasswordCourier® password management product lines, securely automates the resolution of common operational challenges such as new user account setup and deletion and password reset and synchronization.  Courion’s non-invasive, self-service architecture enforces security policies, while providing measurable cost-savings, operational efficiencies and productivity improvements.

Courion’s customers include industry leaders such as American Electric Power, The Boeing Company, Children’s Hospital Boston, Fannie Mae, GE, Office Depot,  SunTrust Banks, government institutions such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Census Bureau, and large not-for-profit organizations such as Kaiser Permanente. Courion is funded by QuestMark Partners, JMI Equity and other private investors.  For more information, contact Courion’s headquarters in Framingham, MA, USA at +1 508-879-8400 or visit www.courion.com.  

Courion, PasswordCourier and AccountCourier are registered trademarks of Courion Corporation.  All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.