Physicians Practice - January 2008 - (Page 58)

TECH DOCTOR • The day you buy a cell phone, locate the carrier’s Web site, and create a new password for your account. If you already own a phone, log in today and do the same. • Password-protect all spreadsheets and Word documents containing conﬁdential data using the pass- word-enable feature in your office’s software application. be happening under your nose without your knowledge. For example, in an insurance processing area, it’s impossible to distinguish the keyboard clatter of billers busily posting payments for your practice versus billers typing out their favorite quotes from last night’s episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” to their friends on IM. Those little interruptions often Instant messaging introduces a direct portal from the outside world straight into your computer system. A DANGEROUS DIVERSION paste, but something from earlier in the day, still stored on your computer’s clipboard? Now imagine that your ofﬁce’s transcriptionist is chatting on IM. Just as easily as something can come into your network, so can something go out. One inadvertent paste of conﬁdential text into an IM screen by a distracted transcriber can be a recipe for disaster. Once something is sent out via IM, it cannot be recalled. • “Under the radar” installation. While you may not have installed IM clients on your ofﬁce PCs yourself, don’t underestimate your staff. IM clients are easy to download and install by virtually anyone with any PC experience, and they often can be conﬁgured with “hot keys” that can hide an IM window quickly should a manager come near the monitor, making it difﬁcult to detect unauthorized use. As you can see, as more and more useful technologies become available, the more vigilant you must be. Sophisticated cell phones, text messaging, and instant messaging are clearly here to stay. The question you must ask yourself is: Have I planned for the appropriate use of these technologies in my practice? Jonathan McCallister is a client-site IT manager for a major healthcare consulting ﬁrm, currently assigned to a 140-physician practice. He has worked in healthcare IT management for more than eight years, and in general IT management for more than a decade. • When in doubt, don’t hit the send button. If you think it may not be safe to send some bit of information to a phone, then don’t do it. THE PERILS OF INSTANT MESSAGING grow from a few messages a day to cases in which staff may be spending up to half of their time chatting on IM. • PC security risks. Instant messaging In our imaginary scenario, the front-desk staffer was chatting with a friend using an instant messaging (IM) software client on her PC while also doing her work. Surely no harm could come from such an innocent use of IM, right? Wrong. Many large businesses (medical and otherwise) block the use of IM on their networks or run a “corporate” IM system that ﬁlters dangerous or nonwork-related messages — for good reason. Instant messaging has its place, but you have to weigh its beneﬁts against its risks. Among the troubles IM in the workplace can cause: • The discreet time waster. Instant • software clients come under many names, but all present the same risk — they introduce a direct portal from the outside world straight into your computer system. While many IM software applications do a reasonable job of mitigating that risk, hackers ﬁnd ways to exploit security holes in IM systems all the time. Your ofﬁce PC, containing sensitive data, could be made more vulnerable to viruses, other malicious software, or even outright data theft or destruction — all through an access tunnel created by a simple piece of IM software installed on one of your ofﬁce’s computers. • Easy in/Easy out. How many of you LET US HELP WANT A PRACTICE MAKEOVER? TELL US YOUR TOUGHEST PROBLEMS, AND WE MAY HELP YOU — FREE! WRITE US: EDITOR@PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM messaging is the silent killer of productivity. IM clients on PCs can quietly eat away your staff’s time. “Not in my ofﬁce,” you say? It may 58 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | JANUARY 2008 have pasted something into a document, only to realize that what you pasted was not what you meant to PHYSICIANS PRACTICE AMERICA’S LEADING PRACTICE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - January 2008

Physicians Practice - January 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Fixing Medicaid Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks Noteworthy Cover Story: Fee Schedule Survey: 2007 Results Adding Ancillaries: Bucking the Practice Ask the Experts Idealab: 'How I Got Over My EMR Excuses' Technology: Don't Be Denied The Tech Doctor: Blessing or Curse? The Administrator's Desk: Learning From the Best Coding Career: To Partner, or Not? Management: Controlling Your Inventory Human Resources: How to Fire an Enployee Finance: Beyond Reimbursment - How to Fix Your Mix Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - January 2008

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