Today is February 4. Since January 26 about 5pm, my office has not had power due to a big winter storm that did in the above ground power lines. All over the area there are splintered power poles and trees, transformers and power lines on the ground.
Of the many concerns I have about not being able to use my server and get to my data, the greatest is that of medicine lists.
In the past, I have been frustrated that the electronically prescribed medicines that I have done for all my patients are not available via internet in the hospital at the time of admission or discharge. The data could be available to us through both AC and a secure website, but according to New Crop, the decision was made to keep it only in AC. Now, well over a week without power, I am concerned about not having access to my patients med lists.
For future reference, can anyone suggest names/brands of generators that can run a server and my office computers. It would be nice to be able to run a space heater as well. It is 15 degrees here today.
Technology is great when power is available, or at least that's the way I remember it was.
Vicki Roberts, MD Family Medicine of Southeast Missouri Sikeston, MO
I use GoToMyComputer to log on to my office desktop remotely. You could use LogMeIn, etc. They are secure. Then you can reach you office "server" to use AC from your laptop, hospital intenet connected computer, or any compute in the world that has Internet connection. Of course, you have to have power at the office for any of this to work.
You better get some heat into your office (at least 40 degrees) or you will be looking at broken water pipes, too.
Good luck. Keep us all posted.
Bruce. Internal Medicine (and some Pediatrics) North Central Ohio
We here in southern Indiana suffered the same. But, I have a battery backup (APC) for my server, so no loss of data access there. We were lucky enough not to have DSL outage so I could log in from home, via logmein, and access my server. I usually do not work remotely on my server but in this instance, it was the only computer powered up. My office was closed for a week because of lack of electricity (too cold and too dark to see patients) but I could still use my server. We had a similar problem in September when we were devastated by left-over winds from Ike. You need to look into battery backup.
Leslie
Leslie Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
Even an uninteruptable power source (UPS) doesn't run for long periods of time. To prevent data loss if the power goes out during the night, during vacation, etc when you can't get to the office right away be sure to get an UPS that will automatically save your current session and shut down after 30-60 minutes. For extended periods of operation, such as Leslie and Vicki (as well as Hurricaine Katrina victims) have experienced, the only solution would be a back up generator. Or you could just temporarily move the computer to another location that still has power.
Bruce. Internal Medicine (and some Pediatrics) North Central Ohio
My APC lasted a week....but, I had just replaced it only a few days before so, who knows. And, the only thing plugged into it is the server and its monitor
Leslie
Leslie Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
Wow, that's amazing. Even if the server and monitor take a conservative 200 watts, that's 33.6 kilowatt-hours. If a car battery averages 100amp-hours and there is 100% efficiency in converting to AC, then it would only have 1.25 kilowatt-hours. What model of APC do you have? Or perhaps your server has a sleep mode (monitor should have)?
Leslie, sounds like we pretty much get the same weather. This afternoon before I saw all these wonderful suggestions, it came to me that on the 6th day when the weather was good enough to drive the 30 miles to my office, I could have just brought the server home with me. I have an APC. I have no idea home long it lasted. The problem for me was that the cable needed electricity also. We have some sort of an iomega tape backup system that backs up the hard drive every night. My office manager takes that home. I guess I am going to have to take the tape home myself and get one of the machines to run at home.
Thanks so much for your suggestions. Luckily Bruce, we have had the water running all this time.
Will keep you posted.
Thanks again. Vicki
Vicki Roberts, MD Family Medicine of Southeast Missouri Sikeston, MO
I am not a big APC fan anymore. I use Cyberpower. But, APC may work better for you.
But, that APC UPS that you have Leslie must be larger than a refrigerator. I can't imagine my 1500 running more than two hours. From what you are saying, it seems as though all of Southern Indiana could have plugged into your UPS, and there would have not been a power outage. That is incredible.
Nope, it is a 700 series or something. But, I lied. Well, actually I was mis-informed. One of my employees lives right down the street from the office (I live 40 miles away). I quizzed her and she said her power was off and on several times while they were working on the lines and through the duration of the storms. They had it fixed and then more tree limbs fell from the ice and it went out again. So, I guess the APC was able to recharge. All I knew was that when I tried to access the server, it was on. During the Ike event, we lost DSL also. I was actually out of town on vacation and I could not access the server but I thought it was because of the downed data/phone lines. So, ignore what I said before. I am stupid.
Leslie
Leslie Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC
"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "
Miracle of Miracles Some more workers came from out of state yesterday and they got the poles and transformer back up. Live and learn!! Thanks again to everyone
Thanks for explaing Leslie. I was getting ready to go out and buy some APC stock. Wait, what am I saying? This is probably not the best time to buy stock.
Then, again, the same people who advertise on the radio that the market is great, and it is time to buy stock, are now telling me how much money I can make in a "down market."
Mine as well. We went through the infamous ice storm in Maine in 1997. It was my first year here, and I was like, "Is this the way all winters are in Maine?"
