7 Ways Healthcare Organisations Can Boost Intranet Compliance

Summary 

Internal threats now outweigh external attacks in healthcare data breaches, with poor intranet governance often playing a role. In this blog, we share seven key features and strategies that help healthcare organisations secure their intranet platforms and meet HIPAA compliance. From permissions to on-premise hosting and built-in training tools, Claromentis provides everything you need to operate safely in highly regulated sectors.

Malicious outsider threats were once a top concern for healthcare IT departments. Now a new threat has taken precedence – and they could be wandering along your patient wards as we speak. 

According to a recent Verizon report, 70% of all healthcare data breaches are a result of internal threat actors. 

Reasons behind these breaches vary from privilege misuse to miscellaneous human error. Regardless of their origin, these incidents all have one thing in common: they can result in hefty regulatory fines and lasting reputational damage.  

To avoid this fate in your healthcare institution, you’ll need to improve your data security efforts. And that starts with bolstering the platform where most of your personal and medical data lives: your intranet. 

In this blog, we’ll explain how you can boost intranet compliance and, by extension, improve your data security practices. 

7 tips to improve healthcare intranet compliance

Intranet compliance is an ongoing team effort. The responsibility of which lies with your intranet vendor and your internal teams.

In the following tips, we’ll recommend best practices that concern both of these parties. 

1. Choose a security-forward intranet vendor 

Data security and compliance should be at the forefront of your mind when choosing (or replacing) an intranet software. Why? Because vendors differ, and so too do their security measures. Some may handle your data flippantly, making it difficult to comply with regulatory requirements. 

So, when making your decision, opt for a partner that:

2. Opt for an on-premise deployment

The majority of cloud-hosted intranets benefit from extensive, best-in-class security. However, no matter how extensive these security investments are, you’ll never have full control over your data. 

This is the nature of any SaaS deployment. But, for such a heavily regulated industry, it can be a major sticking point. 

For peace of mind, your organisation may prefer to deploy an on-premise intranet instead. This will give your IT and security teams full control over your data and the security of your systems. It’ll also allow you to restrict data access to your local network only. 

Claromentis is one of the few intranet providers that offers on-premise deployments – and with no hidden costs. For more details on our self-hosted solution, please download our in-depth technical guide:

3. Assign intranet admins and moderators 

Without any governance, your intranet may evolve into a data free-for-all, with employees having access to all manner of sensitive information. 

To prevent this, you’ll need to assign a team of intranet admins. These are users who demonstrate high levels of understanding in relation to employee responsibilities, data security and governance. 

It’s their responsibility to manage your overarching intranet and lay the foundations for compliant data sharing practices. 

While admin rights will differ from platform to platform, administrators in Claromentis can: 

It’s worth noting that these administrators needn’t be tech gurus. With Claromentis’s no-code, drag-and-drop functionality, anyone can build new features, set up automated processes and manage your intranet. This gives your technical and compliance teams valuable time to actively find and mitigate risks. 

4. Configure user groups and permissions 

One key HIPAA requirement is the ‘Minimum Necessary Rule’. In other words, only those who absolutely need to access protected health information (PHI) to fulfil their duties should be able to view and use it. 

This is where intranet user groups and permissions are invaluable. By filtering users into groups, you can ensure that employees only see the intranet content that’s appropriate for their role. 

In addition to this, platforms like Claromentis add an extra layer of privacy via IP whitelisting.  With this feature, only users with an acceptable IP range can access your most sensitive healthcare documentation. 

How can an intranet help enforce access control and privacy in compliance-heavy environments?

Granular permissions are key to protecting sensitive data and enforcing the ‘Minimum Necessary Rule’ in healthcare or other regulated industries. Claromentis enables teams to create detailed user groups, apply fine-tuned permissions, and restrict access by users or by IP address - ensuring that only authorized individuals can access protected information.

5. Enforce content approval

Even users with higher levels of permissions may, on a bad day, accidentally reveal sensitive data they shouldn’t via an intranet news update or blog post.

To account for slip-ups like this, implement content approval measures. This allows your intranet admins and/or subject matter experts to read through an intranet communication before it goes live. The result? You limit the chances of personal, internal or healthcare data falling through the cracks and imorive your organization-wide healthcare compliance. 

6. Take advantage of intranet auditing tools 

• With the right intranet software, you can access a historical audit log of user activity across your intranet applications and documents. Reviewing this data will help you:

For your convenience, Claromentis also comes ready made with an audit management application. This feature allows you to consolidate and structure your regulatory data, as well as track your progress leading up to an audit. 

Which intranet features help organisations prepare for regulatory audits?

Audit readiness depends on having visibility over user activity and the ability to generate compliant records on demand. Claromentis includes an audit management application and built-in activity logs, allowing you to monitor PHI access, track compliance progress, and centralize documentation ahead of inspections.

7. Train staff on data security best practices 

Technology can only do so much. To ensure your healthcare compliance, you’ll need to keep your employees updated on data security best practices, as well as your own internal standards. 

We recommend augmenting your current data security training with intranet-specific guidance. This should cover:  

Claromentis can help you present this training with our built-in learning management system. Once you create the learning materials, you can structure them in tailored, engaging learning pathways and assign them to your users. 

How should healthcare organisations train staff on intranet compliance and data security?

Intranet-specific training is essential for staff to understand how to safely use internal systems and follow compliance policies. Claromentis' learning management system enables organisations to build tailored training pathways, assign mandatory compliance modules, and track employee completion to support HIPAA and internal policy adherence.

Safeguard your healthcare internal comms with Claromentis

Data breaches have impacted over 32 million US patients in 2024 so far. With so many of these breaches being attributed to insider threats, there’s a high chance insecure and ungoverned intranets have a part to play in this. 

If these statistics ring alarm bells, now’s the time to act. 

To prevent data leakages without impeding collaboration and patient outcomes, your healthcare organization must:

Combined, these efforts will prevent any sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. In turn, keeping your employees and patients safe. 

If you’d like to see how Claromentis can enhance your healthcare organisation’s intranet compliance efforts, book a tailored demo with our team. We’ll walk you through our admin controls, explain our on-premise offering (if it’s of interest), and show you why we’re the best intranet platform for achieving HIPAA compliance.