A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Who owns your "work" computer? - TechSupport

Posted: Dec 30, 2009

Unfortunately, this forum software doesn't seem to provide the ability to post a poll and I'm afraid that if I link to an offsite poll it would be deleted.

To make it easier, you can just respond "Me", "Employer" or "Both" (if you transcribe on an employer's system and also on your own computer - for instance, if you work for more than one employer) with no message unless an explanation is needed. For the purposes of this poll, please consider your "work source" (MTSO, clinic, etc.) to be your employer even if you're technically an IC.

I know this isn't a "scientific poll", but the information will be very helpful. I'm going to be asking two more questions over the next couple of days related to this same issue.

Thanks!

Me.............nm - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
xx

Me too... - NocturnalHooter

[ In Reply To ..]
nm...

me - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
x

employer. Are you a student doing interviews? - n/m

[ In Reply To ..]
..

Please see "My CV" post below...nm - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Who are you, please? What will the data be used for? - MissIndigo

[ In Reply To ..]
x

I would be interested to know this also - ty Miss Indigo

[ In Reply To ..]
x

My CV - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm a computer and security professional with many years in the field of medical transcription, ranging from transcription to management positions and various aspects of transcription, computer and network technologies. I hold a degree in security management with additional training in computer forensics, "ethical" hacking and information systems auditing.

I'm writing an article about the relatively increased level of risk to PHI that is being pushed out to the MT's home when the MT has to provide her own computer, as opposed to the much lower level of risk to PHI that can be effectuated when the MTSO owns and controls the computer.

Just to take one example: When the company provides the computer, it can be configured in such a way that no other software can be installed on it, no "removable" storage devices can be attached to it, etc. In fact, it can even be configured without a hard drive (it boots off the network and then the MT works in a remote application). The MT would not be given an administrator account and would not be able to change this configuration.

Are there workarounds for these security provisions? Yes there are, and hence the need for the systems to be monitored once they're in the field to detect any changes in the configuration, and here again ownership is critical. The company's rights are very limited in terms of monitoring your personal computer, even if it's used for work, because you have privacy rights that can't be extinguished. On the other hand, the company has very broad latitude when it comes to monitoring systems that the company owns.

I know that many MTSO's either have never provided computers or have stopped doing so, and I also know that the reason is strictly one of saving the cost of ownership (or, more accurately, shifting the cost of ownership to the MT, because someone pays the cost). In my view, and especially in light of the new security liabilities imposed by HITECH on MTSOs, this practice is no longer acceptable. A system that is used to perform transcription should not be one that is also used for personal purposes, and at the same time MTs are not going to allow the company to "lock down" their personal computers in such a way that they're useless for their educational, recreational, communications and other private computer activities, nor will they allow the company to invade their private space to monitor their systems.

This is the basic thrust of the article that I'm writing.

I hope that answers your questions satisfactorily.

When I said Both above, I guess I should have also stated - Backwards Typist

[ In Reply To ..]
that I have 2 computers. One is strictly for my work. I don't do anything else with it. As soon as I am done working, it is shut down.

The other one is strictly for personal stuff, like being on MTStars and other personal stuff. This is the way I have always done it over the past 15 years.

Backwards, Canadian traveler here and I thought - L

[ In Reply To ..]
you probably just had 3 jobs, that is what I took from your post.

Not any more. Semi-retired now. - Backwards Typist

[ In Reply To ..]
Used to work for a hospital in house and later at home as an IC (total 9 years), plus an ENT service, a Podiatrist, and an attorney for 19 years.

Attorney hopefully retiring, quit the hospital because I got tired of paying taxes on my own, quit ENT after 5 years because it took too much time and expense; i.e., pick up/drop off, printing reports and letters (which took over 1 hour a day).

I still have my Pod whom I love, 15 years with him (no pickup and delivery, and FT employee at a national. Finally have time for myself.

Good for you, I do part also now and - L

[ In Reply To ..]
really enjoy, plus the fact I love to travel and travel and then get a little bit of work in between traveling. Hope things have picked up around your neck of the woods.

Increased versus lower level of risk? Come on - ORMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Patient information is going into MT homes all over the world including social security numbers (where anyone in that home has access to that information), so really there is no security in PHI regardless of who "owns" or "controls" the computer. MT jobs are never going to go back to being done strictly in-house, so the question of who owns or controls the computer is a mute point. JMHO.

I'm sorry, but you're mistaken. - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
There is a great deal that can be done to protect PHI that's being distributed remotely, and to monitor remote systems, both with respect to external security attacks and employee misuse of the system that might expose PHI to greater risk.

Which of these measures is available to the employer is dependent in VERY large part on who owns the system, both from a legal standpoint and on a practical level.

I am sorry, but there is absolutely no way - ORMT

[ In Reply To ..]
you can control who is looking over a shoulder or what may be written on a piece of paper as far as sensitive patient information unless there is a camera attached to each PC and someone monitoring each person on the other end 24/7 (not cost effective). Again, the most secure you are going to get is to have the MTs return to in-house positions and stop offshoring American health records. There are a lot of identity thieves who are not computer hackers, but people who buy information from the people who have access to it. Not every MT is honest. You may be able to control to some extent what the computer does or does not permit, but the only way you can be sure sensitive PHI does not get into the wrong hands is to not have this available to the MTs, which of course is nonsense because then we would not be able to catch dictator mistakes such as dictating on the wrong patient, which happens frequently, etc. Convince me how a company owned and controlled PC can protect me from the most common form of identity theft, people buying information readily available to someone who is willing to sell it, it happens every day, it has happened to me (not by a hacker, but by someone who had legitimate access to my information and sold it).

Perhaps I wasn't clear. - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
If you understood me to be implying that I am talking about achieving "100% guaranteed security", let me explain that there is no such thing and that's not what I'm suggesting.

There is, however, one way to assure that remote PHI absolutely is never, and can never, be compromised and that is not to provide it to the remote system in the first place. However, this would require certain capabilities on the MTSO side that most don't have. You would have to redact the PHI, replace it with a "key" identifier (John Smith with MR# 1054392 becomes a code such as Z47MS628 - which is all the remote system or the remote MT ever sees) and then reidentify the document when it comes back to the MTSO. I believe that MedQuist is doing this and it's the strongest security measure that I can think of. Naturally, MedQuist still has risks on their side that they must deal with (e.g., an employee in the office misusing PHI), but that would be the case anyway. I applaud MQ for doing this.)

Also, there are many other elements in the security posture of the organization other than computer security that I'm not talking about here, either. Some of these include policies; others include procedures - for instance, better background checking than many MTSO's do now.

While there isn't 100% guaranteed security of any remote system when it comes to any security risk (not just PHI), there is a continuum from "no security" to "very high security", and you cannot achieve "very high security" on systems that employees own.

Thank you - ORMT

[ In Reply To ..]
The person who sold my information did not have any past criminal history. At MQ, on every report on the demographics is the patient's social security number, which MTs have no reason to see, and I can see that this could easily be fixed with tweaking of the system if they would do it. I would feel more comfortable if they would have this information coded. I agree with you that more security needs to happen, just don't think anything will be enough...but then I may be a little cynical because of my experience.

If MQ is doing that, it's news to me. - MQer

[ In Reply To ..]
The demographics on every report I transcribe have the patient's SSN, DOB, etc.

Me, employee status. - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
x

BOTH - Backwards Typist

[ In Reply To ..]
.

PC is my MTSO's because my Vista is not compatible with VoiceScribe! - NIce of them to tell me before I bought it....nm

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Both - buffy

[ In Reply To ..]
I work for a hospital that provides a desktop computer (so I have to stay at home to do my work and cannot take it with me) and for an MTSO where I provide my own laptop and can do my work from anywhere there is a high speed Internet connection.

Using laptop at Wi-Fi hotspots... - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
This is one of the security issues that I intend to raise with regard to personal laptops, because the risks of connecting through a Wi-Fi access point are even greater and it really takes draconian measures to deal with them. It's perfectly understandable that the MTSO might wish to give people the freedom to work while traveling, etc., but only on laptops with special security measures in place. The risks are much greater and range from "shoulder surfing" (people simply reading the screen) to the outright theft of the computer, as well as what are called "man-in-the-middle" and other attacks that hotspots are often inadequately defended against.

I strongly encourage you to encrypt the hard drive on your laptop using a product such as TrueCrypt so that if it's stolen the information that Windows leaves scattered around in unsuspected places can't be read. If you've read stories about government laptops being stolen, you might have noticed that the most scandalous aspect about the thefts was not that they were stolen, but that they weren't encrypted.

A bit more on TrueCrypt - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
TrueCrypt is free, fast, and once it's set up it's transparent to the user (meaning that you don't have to do anything special to encrypt or decrypt files, run programs, etc.).

It also has some very interesting and sophisticated added features that I would deploy on a company laptop if I were setting it up for a remote MT. However, the "normal" features are probably enough.

My computer forensics instructor was a former federal agent who told the class that TrueCrypt is so good that the government really hates it when the bad guys use it on their computers because it takes them forever to crack into it even with their sophisticated capabilities - which few if any laptop thieves would have. Ya gotta love anything that's good enough to give the feds fits.

Both. I use mine for 2 companies and theirs for 1 company. - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

for the purpose of this poll - why are you asking and what it this for? NM - notlisteningtillvalidated

[ In Reply To ..]
.

Please see "My CV" above. nm - TechSupport

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Me - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
.

BOTH - NM

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Me....................nm - poll

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

I'll answer. What's the big deal - anyway? sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I own my work computer. How hard is that?

Similar Messages:

Jul 21, 2010

. ...

Jun 03, 2015

Does anyone know who owns this company? I get so much bad dictation that I think it is hand picked, darn near 100% ESL or English speaking folk that just don't seem to care about how they dictate. Is the Indian side held to the same ridiculous 99.6% standard. There is really NO breathing room for this, especially with truly awful dictation. What is going on? ...

Dec 03, 2012

Who the heck owns Proscript anyhow? ...

Feb 04, 2010

I read that Medmedx supplies computers but you can only have Cable or DSL connection. I live in an area where I cannot get cable or DSL. I have a wireless connection. My question is, do they allow you to use our own computers? Thanks for your time and have a great day? ...

Jul 18, 2011

The reason I ask this question is for my internet I have a USB modem. Do the computers supplied by Q have any extra USB ports so I can plug my Verizon in there? Thanks! ...

Aug 04, 2011

I am in the process of transitioning jobs and will be going from a company-provided computer to my own. Any suggestions on what software programs are needed, virus protection, word expanders, line counting, and hardware like foot pedal? The hospital I am looking into will be using Microsoft Word. Any comments on whether this is a good program or not to transcribe on? Any tips? I have been with the same company for 15 years, so have been out of the loop and need ...

Dec 26, 2009

I need a new computer however I need to have XP for EXText. Wondering which way I should go--- Dual boot or have 2 separate hard drives, one for XP and the other for Windows 7 Professional? Any advice? ...

May 10, 2010

I leave my computer up and running all the time. In the past week every morning I am having to reboot because I get an error saying "insufficient system resources to perform this action." As soon as it finally reboots, then everything is fine, I can log onto DQS and type all day with no problems. Then it sits again all night, and the same thing happens the next morning. Does anyone know what the problem might be? Tech support has already increased the virtual memory capa ...

May 17, 2010

for other things besides work such as another job, internet shopping, banking, facebook, etc.? ...

Aug 19, 2010

I got a new computer today and when my first job comes up the ADT info is at the top of the page. Can you tell me how to get it off. Also how to I make the print on my screen larger? TIA ...

Sep 10, 2010

I was just wondering how old some computers are that are having problems with 6.1 and if there are people with newer computers that handles it better. Mine is a MQ computer that is 4 years old now and it bogs down quite a bit. Everything is sluggish now. I do have 1 GB of ram and 1.84 GHz, so 6.1 shouldn't take a toll on it as bad as it is. I'm just wondering if I should ask the Q for an upgrade, if that is the problem. Knowing the RAM and proces ...

Sep 16, 2010

Need help! I don't use an MQ computer, since they don't want you to put anything personal on it, and most of my life, including banking, is on my computer. My 4-year-old computer crashed and is in the shop for a couple days, and I decided maybe it's time to get a new one. The problem is, DQS requires a 32-bit system, and so far all the new computers I've found are all Windows 7, which is 64 bits. I also want to get a slimline, since it kills my ...

Sep 20, 2010

I turned off the "check as you go" spelling feature to get rid of that distracting wiggly red line. When I upload a document, and a mis-spelling is picked up, what's with all the lame suggestions. I mean either there just aren't any suggestions at all for a simple mis-spelled word with a single wrong letter, or just a simple word. What happened to the old Q dictionary? It seems every 5 years their dictionary gets worse. When I started 10 years ag ...

Dec 01, 2010

I am looking at quitting MQ, and I'm using their computer...do you think they'll let me buy the computer from them???? I can't imagine it's cheap to mail it back to them, and will need a computer for my new job. ...

Jun 06, 2011

Does anyone use a Mac for medical transcription with Windows XP and MT software that requires nothing newer than XP? Also any experience with Windows XP and Medrite XL on a newer computer using Windows 7 and virtual xp? Needing advice before replacing my old computer, which I'm afraid might give out. I would just load XP but supposedly will be transferring to software compatible with Windows 7 sometime in the future. Any ideas appreciated. ...

Oct 03, 2011

Does anyone transcribe on a laptop computer and take your work with you when you travel? ...

Oct 20, 2011

came by FedEx today. Had no idea they were sending this. I quit or decided not to go with them from AT yesterday. Would think they would let me know they were sending a new computer. What a joke, glad I am not staying. Think they got so big they have no idea what's going on. ...

Nov 12, 2011

is there any kind of computer i should NOT consider getting to work for medquist? i think i heard they aren't compatible with MACs, but as far as PCs go....does Windows 7 work? Vista? XP? all of the above? just want to know what to avoid. thanks! ...

Nov 20, 2011

How do I change the color on DocQscribe from that blinding bright background to nice soft gray? I have no clue how on this machine and my eyes get too sore with the white. Also, how do I turn off all sounds, if anyone knows. Thanks in advance. ...

Nov 21, 2011

Got my new computer. Got my flash drive. Want to transfer my favorites, my documents to the new computer. I got the favorites transferred, but can't get the documents. Went to My Documents, Properties, Move to, but according to some instructions I read, it's supposed to ask you are you sure you want to move? or something like that. I never got that question and can't get them moved. Really technically challenged. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I really need so ...

Dec 05, 2011

Right now I'm working from a 32-bit. Which do most transcription platforms support? ...

Apr 13, 2012

Tech support says the Dpcqscribe program will only work with a 32 bit 4 gig computer...Im trying to not have to use their virtual desktop since it is lagging my computer something fierce..So I went to Best Buy today and all they have is 64 bit Windows 7 models..but they did say I could load windows 7 professional on there for another 99 dollars and it will run as a 32 bit...has anyone tried this and had it work??...Ill call tech support in the morning before I invest..I need to get off this craz ...

Jun 19, 2012

My old computer died a couple of weeks ago and I had to go out and purchase a new one with Windows 7. Right now, I am able to use a backup computer that I got from the company, but really want to use my new one with the larger monitor, but I'm having trouble loading DQS 6 onto this new machine. Anybody know off the top of their heads if these are compatible? ...

Jan 21, 2013

MM sent me a letter, tried to say they never received my old computer back which was replaced back in JUNE!! They didn't realize that I'm not a moron and I kept the receipt, because I know what kind of people I'm working for. So if anyone receives new equipment, make sure you keep the receipt when you send the old stuff back, because months later, they will get around to accusing you of stealing their worthless piece of crap equipment that is infected with viruses and ...

Feb 01, 2013

My computer is probably ten years old and has become VERY slow. I have cleaned it and defragged it (Not sure if that helped or not) but I desperately need a new one. I have a newer one here that I could use, but this one has ten years worth of expanders, tips, shortcuts, etc. How do you even transition over to a new computer, is it as hard as it sounds? ...

Oct 13, 2009

When the Q supplies the computer, don't they send a monitor? Just got the tower, keyboard and mouse. ...

Nov 19, 2009

I am a new hire at Transcend and would like to use a laptop for work as I visit my kids a lot. What would be the best laptops to buy? Would appreciate if you included the exact name of the laptop and the processor speed. I know they have minimum requirements but I have read that one could get away with different kinds of processors (even lower speeds) as long as the laptop is just used for work. Thanks! ...

Dec 27, 2009

any opinions? I know lap tops monitors are small but......might like the portability of working somewhere else beside the h***l hole of my office. ...

Dec 30, 2009

Can anybody tell me how I would go about copying my ESP onto another computer? I copied it off my computer that uses the Dictaphone ExText program. My question is do I need to have the ExText program to copy my ESP onto it? Do I have to buy the ESP expander program or is it part of ExText software? Please bear with me, . . I am completely computer stupid. ...

Jan 15, 2010

I am looking to buy a new computer but kind of "stumped" at where to start. I know that I will have to buy Dell since they are about the only company that offers XP any longer. Currently I am running a Pentium 4 CPU, 1.60 GHz with 1.00 GB RAM. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to buy? I am working 3 jobs currently, have several programs that I run and this computer has become bogged down, I have to sometimes sit and wait for it to open a web page or a program. Th ...