Case Study: Halifax Health achieves stronger, cost‑effective network security and improved performance with Fortinet firewalls

Threat Protection Halifax Health Safeguards Its Network with a Firewall Upgrade

Halifax Health, a publicly funded safety‑net hospital system in Daytona Beach, Florida (678 licensed beds and more than 500 physicians), faced aging perimeter and internal firewalls that were hitting performance limits. The IT team needed to protect patient records and meet HIPAA requirements without disrupting clinician access or exceeding a tight budget, and they also wanted a simpler way for their small security staff to manage distributed networks.

Halifax Health ran a test‑before‑buy evaluation and selected Fortinet’s Next‑Generation external firewall and Internal Segmentation Firewall, deploying them over a 3–4 month phased rollout with vendor support. The firmware‑level appliances delivered significantly better throughput, fit the organization’s financial constraints, consolidated management into a single console, and positioned the hospital to streamline internal segmentation and future security enhancements while maintaining uninterrupted clinical operations.

Halifax Health

Tom Stafford

VP & CIO