Practice Management Alert

Don’t fall prey to incomplete preparations — use these general tips to ensure a faster recovery post-disaster.

Location matters. Remember that you may be dealing with disasters of different scales. When your plan is comprehensive, you can use it for situations ranging from a burst pipe (that affects only your office) to a major hurricane (that affects your geographical area at large).

For large-scale disasters, keep in mind that the infrastructure and emergency resources you may reach for may also be out of reach or overwhelmed. The normal means of communication you rely on to reach employees or patients may be scuttled as well.

Protect any Expensive Equipment, Drugs

Power outages are common during large-scale disasters, and medical offices often have a lot of expensive and temperature-sensitive stuff to consider. If you think you may be affected by the power going out, try to ward off the possibility of power surges damaging equipment, including computers, by unplugging or turning off power strips.

Designate two employees as the unpluggers, so you can be sure that at least one will be available to fulfill the duty, said Diana Hatsis, BSN, RN, COT, who presented at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) annual meeting in 2018.

Refrigerators are also problematic — if you happen to store any temperature-sensitive medicine in the office, have a plan. If you have enough notice, like with a hurricane, consider alerting the supplier and shipping the medicine back to be held until power and normalcy are restored, Hatsis suggested.

Look to your storage spaces, as well. Think about floods, for example — what are you storing near ground level? Determine what is irreplaceable and evaluate your year-round storage configurations so you don’t have to scramble in an emergency.

Ensure Security and Access to Crucial Info

When you’re deciding how staff members should respond in an emergency and establishing a chain of responsibility, cover all of your bases.

“There must be a formal list of responsibilities on who will take care of specific tasks during an emergency,” said Emile LeDoux, senior consultant atLW Consulting Inc., in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Remember your IT person, especially if your patients’ health information is stored exclusively electronically. Check in now to see whether your office’s computers being shut down and unplugged impinges your staff’s — especially your physicians’ — ability to access patients’ records.

Your practice should already be encrypting all of your data and storing it securely, as well as backing it up regularly. As part of your disaster prep — and as a general good practice — keep a list of which devices can access what information, including mobile devices, and update it regularly.

Tip: Boost your Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance by making sure that devices your practice has used in the past, too — maybe they’re sitting in your storage closet now — that have created, submitted, accessed, or stored protected health information (PHI).

Establish Communications Plan Now

When you’re in the midst of an emergency, having your i’s dotted and t’s crossed will be a comfort. Record a message now explaining your office’s hours or closure during the emergency, or at least write the script. Get in touch with your website manager to figure out how to implement an announcement bar or window with your office’s status and instructions for patients during an emergency.

If your website doesn’t already have a separate portal for employees, consider adding one. Besides general human resources information or schedules, an employee portal could be a means for employees to check in.

Important: If you don’t already have a policy in place about when staff should return to work, craft one, and make sure all employees know. Most offices plan to open 24 hours after the community returns to the area to give staff time to take care of their own homes before they resume work, Hatsis said.

Check in on Insurance

Does your property insurance cover natural disasters? To the tune of what dollar amount? Your basic business insurance probably does not include flood coverage. Most flood policies are separate purchases.

Check in with your insurance provider and talk through the risks and benefits of boosting your insurance. Keep your policy information and agent’s contact info on hand so you can access it regardless of your location or whether your office is open.

Continually Incorporate Staff Training

Make disaster preparation responsibilities part of your new employee training or onboarding. Make sure you designate specific employees, or roles for particular responsibilities, and outline what tasks must happen at which moments during an emergency.

For example, the employees responsible for unplugging equipment or electronics will need to act before the office closes, and the employees or vendors responsible for checking in on the security and accessibility of PHI will potentially need to be available during the emergency, depending on patient need.

Establish staff training and retraining as a regular component of your annual calendar.

Never Think of Disaster Prep Plan as Finished

Someone needs to look over your plan annually or semi-annually to make sure that all points are still accurate. Update your plans during every instance of staff turnover and reassign responsibilities as needed. Incorporate new or changing device or equipment data regularly. Let all of your employees look over the plan — fresh eyes and differing sensibilities may uncover holes or further liabilities in your preparation efforts.

Focus on Accounting if you Incur Any Losses

If you sustain any damage in a disaster, figure out exactly what was affected and make a list. Figure out what to prioritize and then attend to each, with your insurance provider and within your practice.