Increasingly, headlines features news of bombings, floods, and fires. Given this uncertain environment, look for astute business leaders to invest in new ways to support their employees and keep companies running smoothly. A San Diego-based business and its CEO are helping businesses prepare for the next disaster.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has set a priority of improving emergency preparedness for “inevitable” future disasters. “All of us can do more to be better prepared in case of emergency.” says Henry Renteria, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Businesses and individuals can also contribute to overall community preparedness. “Business and personal responses to a disaster are closely related.” says Bruce Tarzy, CEO of MediKeeper. “Workers find it difficult to focus on their work until they have that peace of mind.”
A survivor of recent fires in San Diego, Dr. Tarzy speaks from personal experience. At 4am on October 22, the Tarzy family was forced to evacuate. Fires raged over the next three weeks, destroying over 1,500 homes and displacing over one million households.
Lack of access to medical records wastes time, and can even be life-threatening. During the fires, innumerable records were either burned or inaccessible for several days. Many people forgot their medication at home and couldn’t go back without losing hours spent proving their residency, waiting for a police escort, and dealing with other forms of bureaucracy.
In this new era of increased uncertainty, significant challenges face an owner trying to protect the business and prepare his or her employees.
Dr. Tarzy’s company provides a solution for CEO’s, reducing stress and saving time for employees during disasters and expediting the process of getting the business back to normalcy post disaster. “MediKeeper has developed a set of web-based health and wellness tools that employers provide for their employees. One of those tools is the Personal Health Record, which allows an employee to securely and safely store his or her health information – medications, patient history, images, lab results, and more. Employees appreciate the investment in their health and peace of mind. With this service, they know that they can access their family’s critical health information anytime, anywhere, in any situation.”
His firm is taking this solution a step further by also creating a secure online system for storing non-medical documents such as trusts, wills, deeds and family photographs.
He continues; “That first week back at work after the fires, employees were distracted from their work by concerns about documents, medications, and insurance.” It became immediately apparent to him the productivity loss that results from an unprepared work force.
The Red Cross advises: “The best way to make you and your family safer is to be prepared before disaster strikes.”
Look for business owners and CEO’s to heed this call for disaster preparation during 2008. Many of them will turn to Dr. Tarzy and MediKeeper to provide the solution.
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