Protect and Defend

Knowing how to react when an emergency or natural disaster strikes will help safeguard lives and your hospital.

Natural disasters and other perils often strike quickly and with little or no notice. Therefore, a well-planned and communicated emergency action plan is vital to protecting a veterinary practice’s employees, clients, patients and property. Any emergency action plan is only as good as the people who implement it. Proper training and appropriate, highly visible signage […]

Data breaches involving a third-party vendor can harm a veterinary practice, too, so insist on a detailed contract.

My article “Are You Prepared for a Data Breach?” [December 2017/January 2018] outlined the importance of addressing a veterinary practice’s cyber liability. Simply outsourcing administrative and financial responsibilities such as credit card processing, data storage, and payroll and benefits administration does not eliminate your liability should a breach occur. Now let’s look at how to […]

Read your insurance policy closely and make needed adjustments so that your practice doesn't go down the drain when catastrophe hits.

Insurance companies estimate potential catastrophe-related losses with greater accuracy today because of improvements in modeling software. These forecasts have driven insurers to pay more attention to locations where losses from disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes can reach critical levels. The result of this enhanced scrutiny is that most insurance policies exclude the […]

The theft of sensitive client information can do irreparable harm to a small business, so take preventive steps now.

You don’t need to look far to find a story about yet another data breach. Here are recent headlines: Health care data of 1 million N.J. patients compromised since 2009 Hacker attacks on health care providers jump 600% Hacker publishes 5 million Gmail addresses, passwords Breach at Goodwill vendor lasted 18 months Home Depot data […]

Employment practices liability insurance safeguards against costly claims of discrimination and other workplace issues.

In today’s environment, protecting your practice against risk is more important than ever. While preparing for fire and professional liability are no-brainers, safeguarding against less concrete threats often takes a back seat. Consider this: Regardless of whether your veterinary practice is small or large, the chance of encountering an employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) claim […]

An introduction to the nuts and bolts of properly insuring your practice.

Finding the balance between too much and too little insurance coverage can be a challenge. How do you know where you stand? Asking your insurance company after you suffer a loss is not the way to find out. As a veterinarian now specializing in veterinary insurance and risk management, I’ve seen many cases where practice […]