Summit Center
Medical Facility Finds Key to Productivity and Savings

According to Chief Information Officer Daniel Anderson, while all concerns were real, employee productivity was the number one area when it came to causing clear and present discomfort.

“Some job functions should have been accomplished in three hours, yet individuals were working overtime,” said Anderson. “Getting one job done versus three, we felt there was a problem … and at the price of annual wage and benefit packages, it was an expensive one.”

Clogged bandwidth is another serious consequence of peer-to-peer downloads. Anderson remembered an audio file transfer of approximately 10 gigabytes putting a “real performance hit” on one of the Summit Center’s servers.

Compounding the Summit Center’s business challenge are many complex compliance issues specific to the medical industry, including those brought on by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.

While researching in PC Magazine, Anderson learned about SpectorSoft and award-winning Spector Pro. After finding Spector Pro features, benefits, and functionality entirely to his liking, the path of due diligence led to purchasing Spector CNE (Corporate Network Edition) licenses for all Summit Center workstations.

There is a shared PC workstation in one particular area at the Summit Center. In a perfect IT world, a valid user would log on, conduct appropriate PC tasks, and log off when leaving the workstation. In this case, however, with just one individual logged on, many questionable activities were recorded by Spector CNE’s screen snapshots function.

“Everyone from that area was contacted and we sat them down in a room and showed them the recordings,” said Anderson. “From my standpoint, it was great. I didn’t have to say a word, but they had to pick their jaws off the floor. Two hours later, everyone in the building knew what had happened. There were no terminations but the learning experience was powerful. Now nobody ever leaves the computer without logging off. And nobody loans their user ID anymore.”

According to Anderson, Spector CNE’s findings didn’t surprise him. Summit Center management, however, found the information hard to fathom.

“When I brought the information to them, they couldn’t believe it was happening,” Anderson said. “They didn’t think their employees were capable of the type of activities that were going on. Once I showed them the proof they said ‘this is incredible.’ It really opened their eyes.”

“Recording the screen snapshots, along with keystrokes typed, emails sent and received, and websites visited … for us, these are the key criteria for activity monitoring software,” said Anderson. “The majority of our concerns are addressed by these four features of Spector CNE.”

“The visibility and recordings provided by Spector CNE allows me to ensure our employees are transferring medical information via secure methods,” said Anderson.

“As soon as word got out about monitoring software, things changed right away. A few individuals doubted and actually challenged us, saying ‘I don’t believe you can track what you say you can.’ But it only takes one event to change their mind … and the word gets around quickly … the grapevine is alive and well.”

“The price is right, the install is easy. And the time to learn? There’s no learning curve … it’s ‘here you are’: pull up the management console and go. An individual can be up and running on the product in less than two hours. After that, it’s a hands-off package and that’s what I like. It doesn’t require too much attention.

If Anderson has anything to say about it, Summit Center management can expect to reap the benefits of Spector CNE for some time. Said Anderson: “When I find a product that works, I stick with it and recommend it to others.”

Spector CNE (Corporate Network Edition)

Spector CNE is the world’s leading computer and Internet monitoring software.

Spector CNE can be configured and installed remotely FROM any computer on the network TO any computer on the network, and the recordings can be viewed from ANYWHERE on the network.

Spector CNE automatically captures and lets corporations review:

• Emails sent and received
• Chat conversations and instant messages
• Web sites visited
• Applications launched
• Keystrokes typed
• Peer-to-peer files downloaded
• VCR-like screen snapshots

Spector CNE provides immediate email alerts to notify the appropriate person or persons when specified key words or sensitive phrases appear in an email, chat, instant message, or on a web site visited.

Spector CNE - Healthcare Complaince