Disaster Planning Is Your Medical Practice Ready for the Unexpected?

A number of natural disasters have affected our region and businesses in recent years. These include the microburst that touched down in Easthampton and the tornado that ripped through Western Mass.
We also can’t forget there was an earthquake, with its epicenter in Virginia, which shook buildings and caused damage throughout the entire Eastern U.S. Hurricane Irene made landfall in New Jersey, working its way up through New England, causing some of its most significant damage and flooding in Vermont. Finally, there was the unprecedented October snowstorm that caught everyone off guard while they were preparing for Halloween.
When you take into consideration the many unprecedented natural disasters that have affected us over the past several years, and add to your consideration the many unforeseen losses that your business may face (fire, sustained power outage, burst pipes, etc.), the need for disaster-recovery planning becomes acutely obvious.
The unexpected nature of such disasters is precisely why your plan is so critical. You never know when disaster will strike and what form it will take when it does. This article will help you understand why having a plan is so important to the survival of your practice, provide you with some resources to help create your plan, and give you some information on what should be included in your plan.

Do You Have a Plan?
Just a few short years ago, the Medical Group Management Assoc. (MGMA) conducted a survey of medical practices regarding their preparedness for an emergency. The results were stunning, particularly as the survey was performed not long after the events of 9/11, the SARS scare of 2003, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Approximately 30{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of practices had no emergency plan at all, and 68{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} would not know how to coordinate with federal agencies, such as FEMA, while 87{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} felt there was a moderate to high probability of some form of disaster occurring within a five-year period of time.
For those that fall within the 30{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} category, it should be pointed out that HIPAA contains a requirement to protect patient records in the event of a disaster. If disaster should strike, and you have not adequately planned, further damage could come in the form of fines and penalties for not adhering to HIPAA regulations.

What Resources Are Available?
For those of you that do not have a plan currently in place, or for those that feel it is time to review the adequacy of the plan you do have, help is available. First, the MGMA has gathered a series of resources, which can be located by visiting its website at www.mgma.com/emergency.
These resources include various articles on the subject matter, as well as tools to assist in developing your emergency plan. The most comprehensive of these tools is the Emergency Preparedness Response and Recovery Checklist, which was developed by the American Health Lawyers Assoc.
Additional resources can be located through the American Medical Assoc. Center for Public Health, which is a physician resource at the website www.ama-assn.org, as well as through the Mass. Medical Society at www.massmed.org.

Keys to Success
While each plan can take on a variety of forms, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are a few key items that should be considered when developing any disaster plan. First, keep backups and other items offsite. Sure, backing up your patient database and storing it in your desk drawer will help if your server crashes, but this will do you no good if a fire in your office is the cause of the server failure.
The same can be said for a listing of people to contact in the event of an emergency, which would include how to contact your patients. This phase of the plan becomes even more difficult, if not impossible, for those practices that have not yet migrated to an electronic medical record system.
Second, consider delegating various aspects of the operation of the disaster plan to different team members. This way, the entire success of the plan does not rest on any one individual’s shoulders. Depending on the extent of the emergency, many people from your office may need to oversee certain aspects of the plan in a timely manner.
Without proper delegation, the situation may become difficult to manage if your staff is spread out or if something were to happen to the person charged with its operation.
Next, it is critical to review and update your plan on a periodic basis. Over time, roles within the organization change, as well as operational aspects of your practice.
Finally, it is imperative to understand how your practice will be able to survive financially after a disaster. This starts with keeping records of all of your banking account information and understanding the terms of a line of credit that you may have. Next, this means having a detailed understanding of your current insurance policy, including what types of disasters or events would, and would not, be covered if a claim was made. Lastly, this includes knowing all your third-party payers and how you could continue to bill for services rendered and receive payment.
Disaster could strike the area where you live or maintain your practice at any time. The survival of your practice depends on being prepared and having a plan in place, ensuring that you and your staff know how to respond.
When the next disaster strikes, will you be ready?

James T. Krupienski, CPA, MSA is senior manager at Holyoke-based Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C., in Holyoke, certified public accountants and business strategists; (413) 536-8510; www.mbkcpa.com