A Cybersecurity Checklist for Small Healthcare Practices With No IT Team

You do not need a department

Small practices often assume cybersecurity requires an IT team they cannot afford. The reality is that a handful of high-impact controls, done consistently, address the majority of risk for a practice that has no in-house IT. You do not need a department, you need a checklist you actually complete.

The essentials

Start with the essentials: turn on MFA for email and EHR, encrypt every laptop and device, enable automatic patching, run a reputable endpoint protection tool, and maintain a tested backup stored offsite. Add a simple vendor list with signed BAAs, and train staff on phishing and reporting. These steps cover the most common breach paths and are all achievable without deep technical staff.

A partner for the rest

For everything beyond the checklist, a managed services partner gives you the expertise a small practice cannot hire. The combination of a completed basics checklist and a partner for the rest is how a small practice gets enterprise-grade protection on a practice-sized budget. See our IT services for small business and managed IT services pages.

What to do next

Work through the essentials checklist this quarter and confirm each item is done, not just planned.

• A short, completed checklist beats an ambitious, unfinished plan
• Cover MFA, encryption, patching, backups, and training first
• Use a managed partner for what is beyond in-house capacity