Key Points:

• Why only back up financial data when your very business is based on paper based medical records?  How can you prepare? 

Preamble

Those along the eastern seaboard are regularly reminded about the effects of severe weather. In the mid-Atlantic states, the past few years have seen buildings destroyed from crashing planes, tornadoes in College Park and Southern Maryland, record snowfalls with building collapses, ice storms, thunderstorms producing a half foot of rain not to mention devastating hurricanes.

Mother Nature has a powerful way of making a point. Everyone needs to develop a backup system for their business AND medical records within their practice.  Mother Nature has done this time and time again by flattening houses, churches, medical clinics, and of course, trailer parks (also known affectionately as tornado landing zones).

Bricks and mortar can be rebuilt.  If the building is destroyed, however, the medical records will likely be destroyed - or worse, scattered by gale force winds through a nearby trailer park. Isn’t that a reportable HIPAA violation? Think of the paperwork with all those patients!

When the last hurricane hit, how many groups had to prepare to ensure that medical records were safe, secure and not blowing around in some trailer park?  When will the next disaster strike? If you know, quickly buy a lottery ticket because "you gotta play to win"!

Scanning paper records or development of an electronic mini-medical record or even a full EMR is a necessity.  Terms you will need to learn include Level 5 RAID, mirrored drives, external drives or online storage. Why just backup your financial data when your very business is based on paper medical records?

Preparation is the hard part.  Offsite storage is part of the solution.  If you do not yet have a plan, please stop tempting Mother Nature and endangering neighbors and people living in trailer parks from flying debris.

Business Reality:  Every practice should be evaluating how technology can improve their practice.  The efficiency improvements are just too compelling.  Making the decision to move forward is the next step.  

 Feel free to send us your comments and if there is anything that STATpay can do for you, please let us know!