Southern Nevada Health District secures its remote workforce and ensures the health and safety of citizens in Las Vegas

Created in 1962, the Southern Nevada Health District is one of the largest local public health organizations in the United States. The Health District serves more than 2.2 million residents, which represents 72 percent of Nevada’s total population.

Additionally, the Health District is charged with safeguarding the public health of more than 42 million visitors to Las Vegas each year. The Health District currently employs approximately 500 staff members working in four divisions: Administration, Community Health, Environmental Health, and Clinical Services.

As the local public health agency in the Las Vegas, Nevada area, the Southern Nevada Health District touches the lives of residents, employers, and visitors every day. From the food people eat to the public spaces and businesses they visit to the clinical health services they need, the Health District is at work ensuring those experiences are safe, healthy, and compliant with applicable laws and ordinances.

It’s a vital service, and a huge responsibility, carried out by a diverse team of health, environmental, clinical, and administrative professionals. The Health District’s staff operates out of seven locations in the communities surrounding Las Vegas, updating health records, processing inspection reports, granting permits, issuing birth and death certificates, and managing the day-to-day operation of one of the largest public health organizations in the United States.

Reliable access to applications and databases is critical to delivering all these services, and securing information traversing the Health District’s network is of the utmost importance. Much of the information is highly sensitive— personal medical records, lab results, screenings for infectious diseases—and must adhere to HIPAA compliance regulations.

To provide end-to-end security across the organization, Southern Nevada Health District relies on a unified security infrastructure from Palo Alto Networks with holistic data management and backup provided by Rubrik.

Jason Frame, chief information officer with Southern Nevada Health District, says, “We grade simplicity high on our priority list when evaluating systems; this is why we have other systems in place, like Rubrik, that require virtually no manual backup management.”

Delivering the IT and security services to meet the everyday demands of the Health District is a big job under standard operating conditions. When COVID-19 hit, IT and the entire Health District had to shift into overdrive.

Virtually overnight, the Southern Nevada Health District was on the front lines of fighting a pandemic. One team was providing about 1,000 COVID-19 tests per day, another team was performing contact tracing, and others were coordinating resources with the state and reporting back to the CDC.

Adding to the challenge, two-thirds of all Health District employees were required to work from home; only the most essential frontline workers remained on-site focused directly on the COVID-19 crisis.

According to Jason Frame, “Some staff who would not be able to do their normal jobs due to the shutdown were able to transition to different roles like contact tracing that they could do from home and stay employed. We didn’t have to lay off or furlough anyone. We were able to save jobs and keep people working. Without the secure remote access capabilities of Prisma Access, we wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

He adds, “We’ve actually had people send us thank-you notes and emails thanking us for allowing them to work at home with their families, and be able to take care of their kids doing school online. It’s great to hear that what we’re doing in IT is making a difference in the lives of our employees.”

One of the reasons Southern Nevada Health District can be assured its remote workers are secure is that Prisma Access connects them to network services through the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls deployed in the Health District’s data center. They cannot bypass this connection. That means all traffic is subject to the same security policies, the same granular inspection, as if they were in the office directly connected to the network.

All of the Health District’s endpoints—physical and virtual servers and desktops—are also secured with Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR^®. Fortunately, the Health District has not seen large numbers of cyberattacks, but it did have a scare when remnants from a former failed ransomware attack were discovered on a shared drive.

“Palo Alto Networks caught the ransomware and we were able to stop the threat in less than two minutes,” Frame recalls. “What’s most important is nothing has gotten through and hurt us so far. The malware isn’t getting in because Cortex XDR keeps us protected.”

Palo Alto Networks also helps Frame and his team streamline investigations and simplify day-to-day monitoring of network activity through the centralized Panorama management software.

Frame says, “Panorama saves us a lot of time, whether it’s investigating potentially malicious activity or enabling access that people need. It’s easy having the visibility and control we need in one place. And being in the cloud, we can access Panorama remotely, which has been especially helpful during the pandemic.”

With the help of Palo Alto Networks, the Southern Nevada Health District has been able to keep its operations up and running securely for frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19, as well as remote workers continuing to provide vital services to ensure the health and safety of citizens, patrons, and visitors throughout the Las Vegas area. This has had public health, as well as social and economic, implications for the community.

“We were able to keep most of our services to the public running, just in a different fashion,” Frame points out. “For example, we were able to shift services for birth and death certificates to online instead of on-site, and enable our staff to process them remotely. It allowed us to still be responsive with such a needed service for families during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Similarly, the Environmental Health team was able to process its reporting offsite, as restaurants, casinos, hotels, and other businesses prepared for reopening. “The team could provide their services in a safe way,” Frame says. “It’s all about infection control—not spreading the disease—while serving the people. Without that, the reopening would be a lot slower and more difficult for our constituents.”

The Southern Nevada Health District has been on a journey of digital transformation, enabling a more agile and resilient workforce while enforcing strong security to protect public information and prevent cyberthreats from disrupting operations. Palo Alto Networks plays a key part in this journey.