In this article, we’ll break down why compliance failures are so common in healthcare, what options organizations have to address them, and why automation is emerging as the most reliable and scalable solution.
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In healthcare, cybersecurity isn’t just an IT concern — it’s a compliance and patient safety imperative.
As cyberattacks increase and regulations tighten, healthcare organizations are under unprecedented pressure to protect sensitive data while maintaining operational efficiency.
Unfortunately, many healthcare compliance failures don’t stem from sophisticated hackers — they stem from internal process breakdowns: missed offboardings, improperly shared patient records, delayed incident reporting, and human error.
The Growing Compliance Challenge in Healthcare
Healthcare remains the #1 industry targeted by cybercriminals — and the most heavily regulated when it comes to data protection (HIPAA, HITRUST, GDPR, and more).
Compliance is no longer optional; it’s a baseline for operating safely. There’s some eye-opening stats that has been collected by various agencies in 2024.
of healthcare data breaches are caused by human error and manual process failures (HIPAA Journal)
The average cost of a healthcare breach is $2.7 million — higher than most other industries
(IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024)
In 2024 alone, HIPAA penalties reached up to $875,000 for single-incident violations.
However, compliance of course isn’t just about penalties — it’s about safeguarding patient trust, operational continuity, and clinical outcomes.
Why Compliance Failures In Healthcare Happen
Doesn’t it make sense for companies to pay more attention to compliance if failures are so expensive to them? Unfortunately, studies show that most compliance failures aren’t due to a lack of policies — they’re due to execution gaps in daily operations.
As stats above indicate, according to the HIPAA Journal, over 60% of healthcare data breaches are caused by internal process failures and human error — not external attacks. But even with the hacking incidents, many of them are enabled by internal process failures (e.g., stolen credentials, improper device configurations).
The IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 also states that healthcare has the highest breach costs for the 13th year in a row, and that that system errors and human factors are major root causes behind breaches.
Not surprising, actually, keeping in mind another report conducted several years ago by the cybersecurity company Nira. It shows that as most companies lack even simple procedures for offboarding departing users, ex-employees feel very comfortable misusing data of their previous employer. Read more on this in the article Google Cloud IAM Pitfalls: Data Leaks Caused By Improper Offboarding and How to Prevent Them
However, data misuse is not the only reason for compliance failures in healthcare. According to multiple studies, common bottlenecks include:
- Manual onboarding and offboarding: Delays or mistakes in granting or revoking user access (already discussed above)
- Incident reporting failures: Accidents or security incidents aren’t logged or escalated properly.
- Poor access management: Sensitive patient data is improperly shared or accessed by unauthorized users.
- Lack of audit trails: IT teams can’t easily prove compliance during audits because logs are incomplete or inconsistent.
The root cause? Manual processes. No matter how well-trained a team is, manual steps introduce inconsistency, delay, and error — all of which are dangerous in a regulated environment.
The #1 Google Workspace Workflow Automation Solution
Zenphi is the leading workflow automation solution for companies utilizing Google Workspace in healthcare industry and beyond. Dozens of companies like ABC, West Coast Children Clinic, CIT Clinics and more have enhanced their compliance using Zenphi. Book a call to learn more.
Available Options to Prevent Compliance Failures
Healthcare organizations have long relied on a few common strategies to reduce compliance risk — but each comes with trade-offs. Here’s a closer look at the most common approaches:
Manual Checklists and Training
- Pros
- Low upfront cost: No need for software implementation or IT infrastructure changes.
- Simple to understand: Can be rolled out quickly with minimal onboarding.
- Customizable: Teams can tailor checklists to internal policies and compliance requirements.
- Lack of audit trails: IT teams can’t easily prove compliance during audits because logs are incomplete or inconsistent.
- Cons
- Highly dependent on human consistency: Even experienced staff can forget steps or misinterpret guidelines.
- Hard to enforce and track: There’s often no real-time visibility into whether the process was followed.
- No audit trail: Unless manually documented, there’s little evidence to prove compliance during audits.
- Not scalable: As teams grow or processes get more complex, checklists become unwieldy and easy to bypass.
Hiring More Compliance Staff
- Pros
- Dedicated oversight: Staff are solely focused on policy enforcement, monitoring, and remediation.
- Expertise on hand: Compliance officers can interpret evolving regulations and ensure alignment.
- Supports a culture of accountability: When there’s a visible team owning compliance, others take it more seriously.
- Cons
- High cost: Salaries, training, and retention are expensive — especially for skilled compliance professionals.
- Not a process solution: Hiring more people doesn’t necessarily fix flawed workflows or reduce manual errors.
- Difficult to scale: Adding more staff for every department or process doesn’t scale efficiently.
- Still relies on manual oversight: Humans can miss steps, make errors, or get overwhelmed during peak times.
Deploying Security Software
- Pros
- Threat detection and alerts: Helps identify unauthorized access, data leaks, or anomalies in real time.
- Policy enforcement tools: Role-based access control and activity logs can be built into certain platforms.
- Supports regulatory frameworks: Many tools include features that support HIPAA, HITRUST, and GDPR compliance.
- Cons
- Complex to implement: Many tools require integration with existing systems and training for proper use.
- Expensive licensing and upkeep: Advanced security platforms come with high ongoing costs.
- Doesn’t eliminate human error: Users may still bypass processes, misconfigure settings, or create gaps without realizing it.
- Still relies on manual oversight: Humans can miss steps, make errors, or get overwhelmed during peak times.
As you can see, each of these approaches can play a role in a broader compliance strategy, but none of them directly eliminate the day-to-day execution gaps that cause most failures. That’s where healthcare workflow automation comes in — enabling consistent, auditable, and secure execution of compliance-critical workflows at scale.
Why Automation Wins
As you can clearly see from the stats cited above, the majority of healthcare compliance failures happen not because policies don’t exist, but because they aren’t consistently executed. Automation solves this by removing human error from the equation and turning critical compliance workflows into reliable, repeatable processes.
But don’t just take our word for it — let’s look at the numbers.
According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, organizations that deployed extensive security AI and automation saved an average of $2.22 million per breach compared to those without it.
What Makes Automation So Effective?
- Consistency: Every step in the workflow happens exactly as designed — no skipped approvals, no forgotten revocations.
- Speed: Critical actions (like suspending access or submitting reports) happen instantly, not days later.
- Audit readiness: Every action is logged and timestamped, creating a built-in compliance trail.
- Scalability: Automation grows with your organization — without requiring more headcount or retraining.
Ready to automate compliance? Book a demo today!
If your healthcare organization runs on Google Workspace, Zenphi is the most efficient and secure way to automate compliance-related processes. Book a call with an automation expert to learn about best practices used by our customers in healthcare.
If your healthcare organization runs on Google Workspace, the best platform to build complaince-related automation for you is Zenphi.
- Zenphi was built specifically for Google tools like Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Admin Console — no connectors or complex API setups needed.
- With its no-code interface, IT teams and operations leaders can design automations without developer support, shortening the learning curve.
- From patient onboarding to access revocation and audit reporting, Zenphi offers ready-to-use templates tailored for healthcare workflows.
- Zenphi is HIPAA certified, and built with the security and compliance controls required to support healthcare-grade data operations.
- Workflows built with Zenphi, allows you to get access to audit logs and trial, enhancing your compliance significantly
