We're a healthcare organization that uses a terminal server to provide access to our electronic health records for two remote (in town) locations as well as about 50 foster homes. For those using the terminal server from home we use a Cisco ASA to run a VPN.
Our arrangement requires that a user's Windows computer have Cisco VPN Client or AnyConnect installed (when one doesn't work, the other usually does.) Mac users are much easier to get on the VPN but they then need to get Microsoft Remote Desktop from the Mac App Store.
In practice, the users have to know how to connect the VPN and then use Remote Desktop Client to go to the terminal server. (Server 2003.) These are users that often don't know where the Start menu is, how to make capital letters and have even asked how to make capitalized numbers. (!)
We dream of a solution that doesn't require that the end-user's computer doesn't require an install of a VPN client or Remote Desktop. Does such a HIPAA-compliant creature exist? (We would have considered making web-based forms that interact with our EHR database but there are some functions that can only be done by the .exe for the system.)