Is Your Group Ready for a Disaster? A Medical Practice Checklist.

While the Northeastern United States is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, a lot of practices that were not affected are probably wondering  “What if that was us?”

Disasters can’t be entirely predicted or prepared for, but taking an inventory of your critical systems and what it would take to replace them in a disaster situation can guide you through the crisis. The basic question to ask yourself is “What would it take to achieve continuity in my practice in the event of X, Y, or Z?”

Continuity means having a plan for continuing to care for patients despite disruption. It also means being able to document and bill for the care you provide during the disruption. Consider the following checklist an ounce of prevention for keeping your practice on track in the wake of an unexpected event that changes business conditions.

Start a disaster recovery plan matrix and consider each of the possibilities (flood, fire, snow, earthquake, epidemic, etc.), how each of the outages below would impact the practice and what you can do about it.

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