Among growing cyberthreats in healthcare, a rural Vermont hospital faces additional challenges in navigating the cybersecurity landscape with limited resources.
Kate Pierce, CIO and chief information security officer of Newport, Vt.-based North Country Hospital, told Becker's it is difficult to find enough cybersecurity experts and enough talent with the education to meet evolving cyber trends in a remote location.
North Country Hospital is a critical access hospital, and the community is very dependent on its facilities, as it owns nearly every practice in the area.
Ms. Pierce said her team meets regularly to address security issues. However, competing priorities with COVID-19 and meeting telehealth needs, among other factors, have stretched her department thin.
"How are we going to manage keeping up with the times with the resources we have available to us?" Ms. Pierce asked.
"My No. 1 priority is ensuring that we are doing everything we can to protect our organization's ability to treat and care for patients," Ms. Pierce told Becker's. "Whatever we do, we do it with the mind that North Country Hospital needs to provide care to our patients and we need to make sure that our systems stay online so that we can do so."
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