Secure Network (PPN)
The PPN is a private, high-speed network available to physicians and practice staff to access the clinical information in their EMR systems. It is built and maintained by TELUS through a Master Services Agreement signed with the Province of British Columbia. Physicians can connect outside the practice as well, over a strongly encrypted virtual private network (VPN) and using an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. There are no PPN monthly costs because the network is funded by the Ministry of Health Services as part of the PITO program.
Key Features:
- Security: Provides industry best practice and robust firewall, anti-virus, and intrusion protection network services that protects it, and the practice networks connecting to it, from external threats coming from the public Internet. As well, it protects from internal threats coming from practice Local Area Networks (LANs).
- Private: Network traffic between the practices and their EMR vendor data centers is private because it does not travel over the public Internet. As well, each practice's network traffic is not visible to other practices. Any network traffic destined for the public Internet will be directed through the PPN Core security devices before being routed back to the originating practice for enhanced security;
- High Availability: Network traffic passing through the PPN Core can be directed through two separate, redundant geographic paths - one in the Interior and the other in the Lower Mainland. A network outage in one geographic area will result in traffic being routed through the other providing high availability for the PPN Core network;
- Extensible: Initially, provides practices with network access to the EMR vendor that they have selected and the public Internet. Eventually, the PPN will provide access to other BC health sector systems (eHealth, health authorities, and other health organizations' systems).
Benefits:
The PPN will replace the Internet connection many practices have with existing network vendors.
Physicians and their staff will use the PPN to:
- Connect the computers in their practice to their selected EMR application;
- Access clinical reference tools available on the public Internet and clinical applications from health authorities;
- Access their EMRs for periodic use from a home computer with Internet access, or other locations outside their practice, over a strongly encrypted VPN;
- Eventually access information in other provincial eHealth systems such as PharmaNet.
Contact details
PPN order process inquires:
PPNadmin@pito.bc.ca
Non-urgent, technical inquires for clinics, their IT support vendors and EMR vendors:
PracticeITSupport@pito.bc.ca
Helpdesk support:
Please contact your EMR vendor’s helpdesk.
If the problem you are experiencing is with the PPN network, the EMR helpdesk will contact TELUS on your behalf.
For problems that occur within 5 days of the TELUS router equipment installation, your practice should directly call the TELUS coordinator with whom they have arranged for the router installation.
View the PPN Documents in our Document Library