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Guidance for protecting your practice during emergencies

Fire, flood, riots, or other events taking place around your practice can cause heightened concern about property damage. Remember that personal safety is always the number one priority and you have support protecting your property against theft and vandalism.

Emergency preparation and response

Locate, create and safely store the following items now so they are easy to access and  se in if needed:

  • A full-circle call tree that illustrates who contacts whom on the practice team.
  • Instructions for an offline messaging app, which allows staff to communicate even if wireless data or internet connections are not available.
  • Guidelines for maintaining compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
  • A Certificate of Insurance and contact information for your property insurance carrier. This document will be necessary if you are forced to temporarily relocate your practice.
  • Steps to follow when returning from an evacuation.
  • Contact patients to reschedule appointments at a future date when you anticipate the practice can safely reopen.
  • Reach out to your employees to notify them of the temporary suspension of on-site appointments and begin to assign remote work duties, if possible.
  • Determine what services you can perform via teledentistry until your practice is restored. 
  • Secure the premises if windows or doors have been broken by contacting an emergency board-up company.
  • Contact your property management to coordinate access to the premises and repair efforts.
  • If the event resulted in the theft of or damage to computer equipment, contact your IT service provider to provide remote access, evaluate risks and restore data.
  • Contact your dental equipment representative if you’ve sustained damage to dental equipment, so that you can coordinate testing, assessment or repair.
  • Hire a restoration company to address water, smoke, fire damage as soon as possible to mitigate further loss.

If the unimaginable happens and your practice is damaged, document the damage and file a claim as soon as possible.

  • Take photos of damages if law enforcement, the fire department and city officials have  allowed entrance to the building.
  • Provide copies of inventory lists and financial documentation to your insurance adjuster.
  • Do not start any cleaning or property removal until the loss site has been inspected by your insurance company.
  • Ensure companies that are offering assistance after the fire are licensed.

Do you have sufficient coverage for emergencies?

Request a free policy review with an agent in your region.