Secure your practice at night

The last client and patient left, the phone stopped ringing, and the day's receipts are tallied. It may seem like time to go home, but first you need to make sure your practice is protected.

Start with the basics: Sturdy locks on the doors and windows act as good deterrents. Then use a checklist that outlines the nightly "closing up" routine.

Put blank checks, check and credit card imprinters, and cash in a safe for overnight storage. To protect your data from theft, fire, and flood, most safe companies manufacture "media safes" or "disk safes"—a good investment.

Secure your office machines, such as computers, printers, and copiers, with hardware and locks to keep them in place so a thief can't take them. Ask your locksmith for advice on keeping equipment useable, but secured from theft.

Designate a security room for pharmaceuticals and other valuable merchandise that has a locking door and no outside window access, plus a safe to lock the most valuable items away securely.

Keep some lights on inside so that any prowlers will be seen by passers-by, and make sure the lights stay on by locking the outside fuse or switch box. Then set the alarm system before you leave. The safeguards you take at close will make opening safer and easier!