Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Gone Digital? 6 Essentials of Back-up

Though I'm no computer expert, I have an EMR, and I have had crashed drives and lost data. I've learned the hard way how to prevent data loss. Here are 6 crucial elements for back-up systems.
  1. Automatic: Your system should back-up without your needing to ask it to do so.
  2. Redundant: You must not leave all "eggs in one basket." This way, you will never lose your data.
  3. On-and Off-site: What if you have a fire or flood in the office?
  4. Daily: If you see more than 5-6 patients per day, you will not be able to remember encounters, let alone billing details.
  5. Versioned: If files are corrupt, versioning will prevent the corrupt file(s) from being propagated to subsequent back-ups.
  6. Recoverable: Back-up is only as good as your ability to retrieve the lost data.

If you have an EMR, you need to back-up.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

The IU.