5-Minute Consult

Susan Wicklund
Practice manager
Associates In Pediatrics
Elgin, Ill.

On a Saturday evening last August, an electrical fire gutted the main office of six-physician Associates In Pediatrics in Elgin, Ill. The billing department was gone, and paper records would have to be restored—all while the group was buried in the busy school-physical season. But by the following Monday morning, they were open for business in a temporary location. Practice manager Susan Wicklund explains how the group managed such a recovery.

HL: What was your first move?
Wicklund: We knew Sherman Hospital has furnished lease space available about six miles away, so we made arrangements to move in.

HL: How did you get the word out to patients?
Wicklund: We lost our computer for a couple of days, but our procedures require us to have paper lists of our scheduled patients at both of our offices, so staff members came in on Sunday to call patients.

HL: What’s your advice for other medical practices?
Wicklund: Make sure to update general insurance as you buy new equipment or add office space. Also, make sure your personal property limits are high enough.

HL: What would you do differently?
Wicklund: We didn’t have a fire contingency plan, and I don’t think it would have made much difference. But I would write a journal from hour one.

—Kara Olsen