I suggest dentists schedule a computer crash simulation on a regular basis (say every 2 months.) Much like monthly or quarterly staff meetings, it is important to know that one’s backup is in fact working and that another machine has the necessary hardware/software to run as the server and that someone in the office knows how to restore the program from the backup.

My office did this some months ago and had to call our support people to help out. It went smoothly (done on a non-patient care day). When I asked the support team if anyone had ever done a crash simulation before they said, “NO, Usually, we just get the panic calls and then have to sort it all out.

Have any of you done this recently?