I’m sure many of you get the all too often sales call covering as a “survey”.

The first words spoken are “this is not a sales call, but a survey…”

We today got another one of these, but this time the topic of the survey was on our computer network.

Immediately my hyper-paranoia kicked in and I played along for a few questions.

You have “front line” people who regularly answer the phones.
What is your office policy on them answering “survey” questions?

Who cares? Well, let’s try this:
Hi, this is Joan from Healthcare Central with a few question about your office and your EHR.

1. Which EHR do you use?
2. Is your server on site?
3. Is your patient portal active?
4. Do you use a reminder service?

Those 4 questions are enough information for them to later call, pretending to be your EHR providers tech support.  They could then request remote access to a computer…which is completely normal for them to request….  Once this is done…you are screwed.

Make sure you have a policy in place and training for those that answer the phone.