One of the more interesting stories I've heard recently was from a new doctor who had just purchased a software system. She was thrilled with all of the components and how easily the software would "grow" with her practice.

She could enter patient information just once and the software would tag her client's record for appointment scheduling, billing, marketing, follow-up, etc. It was HIPPA compliant, user friendly, not too expensive and all around a great product.

What she had failed to do when she purchased the new software was to make sure it was compatible with her "old" computer system, a throwback from her college days.

After installing the new software, which was no problem, then entering about 45 patient's names and information as well as  insurance providers, two days later -- you guessed it -- the system crashed, sending the information into a black hole!

Although the seller of the software had been very diligent about explaining the immediate need for back-up systems to the doctor, she felt that it would be a long time before she ever needed to worry about that. Besides, she was sure everything could be recovered -- somehow.

Missed appointments, a new computer, a back-up system, hours of re-keying information and lots of wasted time and money later, the D.C. is back in business.

The moral of the story is this: think ahead of possible equipment failures. How would you retrieve and save your patients' records in case of some sort of diaster like fire, rain, flood, earthquake, or equipment failures.

For more information on protecting your technology for small business check out SCORE, "The Counselors of America’s Small Business Owners" at http://www.score.org/guides.html

And don't forget to talk to your insurance agent and find out what your policy covers.

For now BACK UP!!

Might anyone have some experiences similar to the example above? Any innovative plans to both save and protect your patient records during disasters?