What this means for your practice
Agree recovery expectations with the person responsible for the service. Explain how much recent work could be lost, how long restoration should take and which costs or dependencies affect those targets.
An example to discuss with your team
Use a fictional failure just before the next backup and calculate the possible loss and recovery delay against the agreed objectives.
How to review the arrangement
Illustrative example: the latest usable website backup is from midnight and the site fails at 18:00. That copy does not include the following 18 hours of website changes. This does not establish that every enquiry is lost: forms or bookings may be stored elsewhere, so ask the responsible supplier to check each source. A nightly-backup promise alone does not tell you what recent work can be recovered.
In a second invented example, restoring files takes 30 minutes, obtaining authorised access takes 90 minutes and checking the working journey takes another 30 minutes. The complete recovery takes two and a half hours. Ask for the whole tested sequence and compare it with the time your service can tolerate. These examples explain the calculation; they are not recovery estimates or guarantees for your website.
Turn recovery targets into a practical conversation
Ask the practice owner what would happen if an important service were unavailable for a working session, and what recent work would need to be recreated after a failure. Different parts of the website may have different consequences. Use those examples to discuss a suitable recovery arrangement and its cost with the supplier.
Keep the assumptions visible. Restoring files may depend on another provider, an available administrator or access to a separate account. A target written in a proposal does not remove those dependencies. Ask for a test showing the steps and the result, then compare it with the agreed expectations. If there is a gap, decide whether to improve the arrangement or change the temporary working process. Staff should understand what they may need to do while recovery is underway, rather than discovering the practical meaning of a backup schedule during an actual outage.
How to check the result
Compare tested recovery results with the documented objectives and explain gaps.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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