Electronic Medical Records Aid Disaster Recovery

EMR programs don’t just save patients lives; they save medical practices, say some doctors.

Computerworld reports that two out of five companies go out of business after disaster hits. The medical community is no different. Downtime can mean inaccessible medical records, ultimately affecting patient safety and satisfaction. Revenue and productivity can take a nose dive.

But electronic medical records can be an invaluable business continuity tool for medical practices hit by disaster. One pediatrician in Bay St. Louis, Miss., whose town was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, was able to reopen his practice thanks to the accessibility to patient records provided by his EMR system. In fact, before the doctor evacuated, he had saved all his data on his tablet PC, recovering it when he got to higher ground.

–Stephanie Overby