Your practice might work like a well-oiled machine, but what happens if an incident causes serious damage or interruption to your everyday working? Business interruption management, also often called disaster recovery and business continuity, is a key part of your risk planning process.
An incident affecting your business could be natural, such as a weather or fire event, or malicious, such as Cyber crime, or even accidental, such as unintentional data leaking.
To manage your business interruption plan, you should identify the key areas of your practice that you can’t operate without.
This could include:
- Damage to your premises
- Equipment breakdown
- Computers
- Contents
- Stock
- Walk-in theft
You might also want to consider:
- Key staff
- Customer data and practice reputation
- Terrorism
Getting started
If you are just getting started with planning your business interruption strategy, this Business Continuity Management Toolkit, published by the government, could help you.
Putting in place steps to get your practice back up and running after an incident is vital.
With there being such a diverse range of possible incidents that could affect your practice, business interruption insurance is important to protect your interests.
This insurance is designed to get your practice back to its pre-incident status – both financially and physically. The policy can cover loss of income and support the re-build process which provides practice bosses peace of mind during a stressful time.
In fact it is possible that business interruption could be your most important business asset if you consider the impact of not having it.
Choosing your cover
You can cover your practice for various types of incidents. You’ll be pleased to know that all areas listed above can be covered under AllMedPro’s surgery insurance package, specifically designed for dentist, doctor and veterinary practices.
Flooding is the most likely cause of damage or interruption, but in today’s global/digital world, Cyber events on small and medium practices are very possible.
Both types of incidents have very different, but equally damaging, effects – and should both be part of your business interruption plan.
Additional Cyber insurance is available to cover the impact of hacking or a similar event.
A few things to think about
Many businesses are under insured when it comes to their commercial properties. This could mean that in the event of a claim, your practice will be liable for some of the costs that you might expect your insurer to cover.
To prevent this, you should have regular valuations of your property and assets. You should also make sure your representation to your insurer of your gross profits matches what is defined in the policy wording. You might consider asking for input from your accountant so you get this right.
What next?
Your business interruption plan is a working document which you should regularly review and update in line with changes in your practice and when you identify new potential threats. In the event of a claim, you should also be able to implement what you’ve learned back into your plan so you can be more prepared next time. This will also help manage your insurance premiums.
If you want to check your surgery insurance policy, or need advice on insuring your business interruption risks, contact one of our specialist brokers at AllMedPro who can talk you through your options.
