Healthcare systems are high-value targets. Baptist Health, a private not-for-profit faith-based system operating across Central Alabama, runs a large attack surface: two major hospitals (Baptist Health Brookwood at 595 beds, Baptist Health Princeton at 505 beds), a network of more than 600 physicians and medical professionals, and a full stack of clinical services spanning emergency care, heart and vascular, neurology, radiology and diagnostic imaging, surgical care including minimally invasive procedures, and women's care. That means protected health information at scale, medical device networks, and the operational technology dependencies that come with running critical care infrastructure.
The threat model is straightforward: healthcare data is persistent, valuable, and regulated. PHI doesn't expire the way stolen credit cards do. A security team here is defending not just perimeter and endpoint but clinical workflows where downtime has immediate patient impact. The scope covers everything from securing diagnostic imaging pipelines and EHR systems to segmenting networks around connected medical devices.
Working security at a system this size means engaging with the full breadth of hospital IT and clinical informatics. Baptist Health's Central Alabama footprint anchors the operational context - regional healthcare delivery with all the compliance and resilience demands that entails. The organization's not-for-profit and faith-based mission doesn't change the technical requirements, but it does shape resource constraints and organizational priorities in ways that matter for how security programs get built and funded.
