Dr. John Doe is a family physician and has been caring for families in a small Ontario community for past ten years. His practice has grown considerably over that time, to now include 3,000 patients. This growth has necessitated Dr. Doe to invest in significantly more human and technological resources, to provide the medical care he needs and wants to.
Recently, Dr. Doe’s medical clinic experienced a late-night burglary. The clinic was significantly vandalized and many items like pharmaceutical samples and most of his computer equipment (e.g. laptops, tablets, etc.) were stolen or damaged.
Last year, Dr. Doe had converted his paper-based patient records to a new digital health record system. To his dismay, the theft of his computer equipment also included thousands of patient files that contained private and confidential health information about his patients. Consequentially, Dr. Doe was gravely concerned about the stolen patient information.
Criminal acts like break & enter and theft are risks that every business owner and professional are exposed to. Perhaps the greatest risks today are cyber risks. Because the migration away from traditional manual information storage to cloud-based digital file storage is well underway across all organizations and industries, cyber-crime has become a goliath industry itself.
Fortunately, Dr. Doe had the foresight and wisdom to fully protect all of his assets in his clinic. His property was fully insured to cover the damage to his clinic and the theft of his computer equipment. More importantly, Dr. Doe purchased cyber coverage to insure against the loss of his patients’ private digital information.
The importance of having broad and comprehensive commercial insurance coverage cannot be understated. This applies to all SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) who gather and retain important customer information as well as all professionals (e.g doctors, lawyers, and realtors) who collect and store personal information about their patients and clients.
It is better to be safe than sorry when considering commercial insurance. Property damage, theft or an equipment breakdown can disrupt your business very quickly and without warning. Not many business owners or professionals can experience a sudden and prolonged loss of income if they don’t have a good commercial insurance policy in place.
Erie Mutual Insurance proudly serves the commercial insurance, farm insurance, home insurance and auto insurance needs of members throughout Southern Ontario including Haldimand, Niagara and Hamilton.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have about this or any other topic related to your insurance.
