American Healthcare Services, a diversified healthcare company with free-standing Plastic Surgery Centers and Sleep Disorder Centers throughout the United States as well as a management services company providing services to physician practices, has a growing presence in over 80 locations and more than 400 employees. As a leader in all market segments in which it competes, American Healthcare’s focus must remain on providing the highest quality medical care and patient satisfaction at an affordable cost. To achieve that goal, the company’s twin strategies are first, to create, expand and acquire innovative services and related healthcare businesses, and second, to acquire and implement new technologies to help achieve those goals.

The Challenge

Providing quality medical care is of paramount importance. Along with that, productivity is a key to survival. American Healthcare leverages its group purchasing power, capital resources, and extensive practice management experience to allow its physician partners to dramatically increase their productivity, creating a more profitable practice that can provide higher quality services to patients.
American Healthcare realized early on that technology is a key enabler to productivity, and has taken a leading role in the industry in implementing technological solutions to achieve this goal. One particular productivity challenge the company had been facing is malicious or undesirable software being installed on users' desktops, due to surfing of non-business Web sites. Non-business related Web surfing in itself creates an enormous productivity problem, draining valuable time away from business tasks and distracting employees' attention, and even creating legal liabilities for the corporation. But in addition to the time that was being lost to inappropriate Web surfing, Web surfing itself also often results in malicious software and other resource-draining programs being installed on desktops, often without the employees' knowledge.
To address this serious productivity issue, it was necessary to see where employees were trying to get to on the Internet, and implement procedures to govern access and enforce an acceptable use policy.

The Solution

Productivity gains come from many different areas. Two such areas involve first, enforcing an acceptable use policy through Web content filtering, and second, using caching technology to deliver acceptable content to end users as quickly as possible. SmartFilter® on the Cisco Content Engine addresses both of these areas. American Healthcare deployed this solution to 200 users.
"By preventing employees from visiting potentially malicious sites, there were fewer incidents of malicious software being downloaded onto our desktops," said Hugh Walton, Director, Information Technology at American Healthcare. "As a result, we have fewer help desk calls due to problems with Outlook or Internet Explorer because of malicious or undesirable software that has been installed." Specifically, one piece of troublesome software was causing serious productivity issues. This particular software was offered as a secure and easy way to make purchases over the Internet, but the convenience came at a price. It also tracked online purchases—and then provided that information to other companies. The result was a tremendous increase in spam email to employees.
"It makes it easy for us to manage productivity," added Walton. "Even the purchase itself was simple. We bought all the products as a bundle—Cisco PIX, Content Engine, and SmartFilter." While SmartFilter addresses the usage policy and prevents inappropriate content from being accessed, other content, such as frequently used medical sites, are cached for immediate access.
"We wanted something solid that was integrated, directly on the Content Engine box. We wanted a complete solution with seamless integration. Cisco recommended SmartFilter. I trust Cisco's underlying IOS operating system and trust Cisco—so if Cisco recommends it, I know it will work."

How it Works

All Web traffic is forced through the Content Engine, where frequently accessed sites are cached for quick access. At the same time, SmartFilter can block sites that American Healthcare feels is inappropriate and not in keeping with their usage policy. "It allows us to tighten Internet access. We can make sure that our employees are not wasting time on the Internet, or visiting malicious or inappropriate sites."
Whenever a user requests a Web page, the request passes through SmartFilter, and is evaluated against the SmartFilter Control List. Requests are then allowed, denied, delayed, or coached. The process is immediate, and causes no noticeable delay from the end-user perspective. If a user surfs to an inappropriate Web site, instead of downloading the site (which wastes bandwidth and takes time), the user instead sees a screen with a "deny" message and a link to the corporate Acceptable Use Policy.
SmartFilter's On-Box™ architecture means that it is integrated directly into the caching appliance. This direct integration keeps overhead to a minimum, improves performance, and keeps the solution nearly transparent. On-Box architecture transcends merely being ported to the device; rather, it includes an integrated API that lets the Cisco host system make an internal system call to connect to SmartFilter. Also, the On-Box architecture means no additional configuration is required, because it comes pre-installed, pre-configured, and ready to go.
In addition, the bundled Cyfin® Reporter allows Walton and his staff to track employee activity on the Internet, and where they are spending their time. The reporting option produces customized, HTML-based reports, detailing Web usage activities and usage trends at a glance. Using the reports, it is easy for Walton to not only monitor compliance, but also to keep track of bandwidth conservation.

Why Secure Computing® for American Healthcare Services

• Tight integration with Cisco Content Engine
• Ability to block inappropriate or malicious Web sites
• Enhance productivity by minimizing non-business related Web surfing
• On-Box integration