A fairly large number of medical practices that were still using paper records face a Herculean task of recovering from this disaster. However, all those who were using electronic medical records systems recovered their vital medical records within few hours and are now returning to normalcy.

So, what should be the disaster recovery plan for a medical practice? Well, any plan should spell out in detail as to what should be done in the case of emergencies and how? When any practice is dealing with the medical billing software, their primary focus should be to protect their electronic information.

Most of the medical practices should devise suitable plan wherein the daily backups are of electronic medical records done to tape for both the practice and the ASC. This should happen at the end of each work day. These back up copies should be safely moved to some alternate place by courier or some other viable means and then stored in the fire-proof containers. By using this backup mechanism, any practice will never lose anything more than a day’s data. Aside from this, more sophisticated remote online backup services can also be added as a second layer of defense. However, some of these solutions may not be affordable to the medium and small practices.

It is very important that such backup systems are tested periodically to check their efficacy. For example: medical practices can test their previous day’s record backup by restoring it on some other server. You should avoid tossing out old tapes and should dispose them responsibly by first erasing all the information to keep the vital electronic medical records confidential.

The biggest benefit of medical billing software is that it will help you in complying with the HIPAA regulations. Aside from the impending threat from the lightning strike or floods is the server failure. Do you have a fail proof redundant backup servers? Have you implemented electronic medical records in your medical practice to maintain your business continuity? In the absence of proper backups, you may have to cancel your appointments and this would mean loss of face and business. Can you face this possibility?

In case, you have medical practice at numerous locations, you can make a satellite office as a “hot” site that can immediately take over the functions of a office that has been rendered inoperable.

Among the advertisers aligning with Joost – Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, chewing gum maker Wrigley, and cosmetic manufacturer Maybelline, owned by L’Oreal.

With content and advertisers ready to back the new service, you might find yourself asking what’s in a name. “Joost has a good vibe to it,” said CEO Fredrik de Wahl. “We have a gut feeling this name is right.”