Mark Another favourite of mine goes back to the good old days of Unix / Xenix - 15 odd years ago. This OS was a fantastic workhorse, but wasn't perfect either and it had been on the market a long time. Few medical billing systems were around and a few "medical records" from overseas. A few of us used a Unix based medical billing system. Unlike windows now where you click a shutdown icon, one had to give unix typed commands to shut down. Has been changed now to make it more user friendly (and behave Windows like).
Now the IT company recommended a tape back up (I of course spent the money initially & bought a tape back up). The practice decided to save money & do backups onto floppies. Remember was a billing system only. After 6 months one receptionist was doing something when on a single line (as was the way Unix operated) displayed the question: Are you sure you want to Delete ? She didn't think and typed Y for yes. She somehow had gotten into the delete all records and on pressing Y, the practice was left with an empty datbase. All patients were there, but 6 months of accounts etc gone. When the IT company arrived to restore the Data from the floppies, it was noticed the floppies were empty. Although they backed up every night, there was some malfunction and it never actually backed up. Thus 6 months of billing records lost. The IT company removed the ability to Delete data by hiding it. Also taught that practice to actually test back ups regularly. Cedric -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Evans Sent: Monday, 12 February 2007 10:11 AM To: 'General Practice Computing Group Talk' Subject: RE: [GPCG_TALK] Re: 3rd Standards Cedric, In regards "David, quite correct. I'm amazed how many people incl. Dr's don't do regular backups or no backups at all, and some never test their backups." My favourite was the case of the practice religiously backing up the "shortcut" for two years instead of the actual clinical database!! Regards, Mark Evans -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Cedric Meyerowitz Sent: Monday, 12 February 2007 9:35 AM To: 'General Practice Computing Group Talk' Subject: [GPCG_TALK] Re: 3rd Standards Does this mean that GP's who still use paper records can't get accreditation with 3rd standards ? I ask because they have no backups of their paper records. But I believe they are excempt. It stinks. If my practice burns down today, I can theoretically reopen within an hour in an empty building. I have a full copy of my backed up notes and can continue where I was before the fire started. Now if you have paper records and your practice burns down, all is lost, unless you have a fire proof room to store notes (I had a fire proof room in the old days of paper records). Maybe the RACGP should then insist these practices have a fire proof room. Also paper files gets misfiled & do disappear. Where is the backup copy so Dr has access to old & current notes ? Cedric -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, 12 February 2007 9:44 AM To: General Practice Computing Group Talk Subject: RE: [GPCG_TALK] Open letter to Medtech Hopefully this will change in the next 3 years due to it being compulsory for 3rd Standards Accreditation,RACGP. Of note though, many practices rushed through their next accreditation visits before 31st Dec 06 just to avoid 3rd Standards. This is why it will be 3 years for some to address the backup/restore issue. fee >-- Original Message -- >From: "Cedric Meyerowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "'General Practice Computing Group Talk'" <[email protected]> >Subject: RE: [GPCG_TALK] Open letter to Medtech >Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:37:56 +1100 >Reply-To: General Practice Computing Group Talk <[email protected]> > > >David, quite correct. I'm amazed how many people incl. Dr's don't do >regular backups or no backups at all, and some never test their >backups. > >Cedric > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >On Behalf Of David Guest >Sent: Monday, 12 February 2007 9:30 AM >To: General Practice Computing Group Talk >Subject: Re: [GPCG_TALK] Open letter to Medtech > > >Cedric Meyerowitz wrote: >> Hosrt >> >> The only Data losses I have had in 10years plus of full electronic >> medical records was due to the medical software I used & not the >> operating system. The only exception to this was the 1st releases of >> Win95. Win95 had problems of not always saving data. Since that was >> rectified by MS the only other data losses were due to the medical >> software & not the OS. I know of lots of people that has had & still >> have data loses but most of them was due to not doing backups - but >> none are due to the OS, and eventually the system crashes etc. Then >> the cost is very high and the IT people make excellent money trying >> to > >> salvage it. >> >Most data loss is due to hard drive failure and your recovery is only >as good as your last backup. An early version of Reiser ate my hard >drive but it such a cool file system I forgave him and have had no >troubles since. > >It's a tragedy that he killed his wife but you know how annoying those >Russian doctors can be. > >David > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Gpcg_talk mailing list >[email protected] >http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk > > >_______________________________________________ >Gpcg_talk mailing list >[email protected] >http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
