It's a clinic's worst nightmare. One day the system is down, or due to a fire or water damage all the paper records are destroyed. Patients are calling for appointments and coming in to see doctors, but there is no way to access the data needed. New tests have to be ordered, and everyone is unhappy. Patients threaten litigation, but the clinic just has to take it on the chin because there is no way to recover the lost files.
Disaster recovery planning is supposed to make these scenarios unlikely, but the reality is that disaster recovery planning can be as stressful as the disaster itself. You don't need to be dealing with that on top of the other demands of a successful practice. You need to have something in place that is easy to manage and doesn't cause more trouble than it saves.
With a third party disaster recovery partner, you can have the stress relief you seek. By outsourcing your file storage and your phone trees, you can have someone else in place to manage everything on your behalf. They can finance the redundant phone lines, the back up power systems, and the off site storage. You can pay for access to all that back up and coverage without having to mortgage your practice to get it for yourself.
Another great advantage of all of this is that you just work with one provider. They handle all of the discussions with the phone company and the data storage people. They work with the power company. You don't have to stress or fret about any of that.
Of course, the best part is that when disaster strikes and you need the disaster recovery system, you can relax because it's already there, tested, and ready. Your patients can call in immediately without having to wait for you to run down to flick the switch on the generator or man the landline. Someone else is already handling it, allowing you to focus your undivided attention on your patients.
By reaching out to a third party for all of your disaster recovery needs, you can save yourself the stress and avoid your biggest nightmares as a practice. Someone who has the time and the energy to dedicate to thinking of a coverage plan for everything that could possibly go wrong is on your side taking care of things. Your clinic can get back to business as usual in practically no time.
