How to protect dental office computers from power outages and surges

What power outages and surges do to dental office computers

Three kinds of power problems can affect your computers.

• Surges and spikes are brief jumps in voltage. Some come from lightning or the utility; many start inside the building when large motors, such as an air compressor or vacuum system, switch on and off. A big surge can destroy a power supply; smaller ones wear electronics down over time.
• Sags and brownouts are dips in voltage that can make computers freeze or restart without warning.
• Outages cut power completely, from a brief flicker to hours. Anything without battery backup switches off.

The bigger risk is often your data. A computer that loses power while it is writing a file or database can leave it corrupted. That hurts most on the server, which in many offices holds the practice management database the whole team shares. A server that loses power suddenly can come back with a damaged database or disk, or not start at all.

Surge protectors vs. UPS battery backup

A surge protector diverts excess voltage away from your equipment, but does nothing when the power dips or fails. Its protective parts wear out as they absorb surges, so an old unit can keep passing power after it has stopped protecting anything. Many models have a light that shows whether protection is still active.

Not every power strip is a surge protector. Look for one listed as a surge protective device (in the US, UL 1449 on the label); a higher joule rating means it can absorb more energy before it wears out. Plug it straight into a grounded wall outlet, never into another strip.

A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) adds a battery. When the power fails or sags too far, the battery keeps your equipment running long enough to save work and shut down properly. Many UPS units include surge protection too.

The three common types of UPS

The three main designs differ in how they handle normal power and how quickly they react to a problem.

Standby (offline)

Your equipment runs on filtered wall power, and the UPS switches to battery when the power fails or drifts out of range. The switch takes a moment, which desktop computers usually ride through. Standby units are simple and inexpensive, and suit a single workstation.

Line-interactive

A line-interactive UPS adds automatic voltage regulation, correcting sags and mild overvoltages without using the battery. It is a common choice for small servers and network equipment, especially where brownouts are frequent.

Online (double-conversion)

An online UPS converts incoming power to DC and back continuously, so your equipment always runs from its steady output with no switchover gap. It costs more and runs warmer and louder, and is usually chosen for servers that cannot tolerate any interruption.

Whatever the type, check that its battery output suits your equipment: many newer computers and servers run more reliably on a UPS with pure sine wave output.

What to plug into a UPS, and what to keep off it

Battery capacity is limited, so spend it on the equipment that matters in an outage:

• The server, which holds the practice management and billing data everyone shares.
• Network equipment: the modem, router or firewall and switches, so a flicker doesn’t drop every computer off the network.
• The front desk PC and its monitor, so your team can close the practice software properly.
• Other critical computers, such as the doctor’s office PC.

Keep laser printers off the battery outlets. They draw a burst of power when warming up that can overload a UPS, and many printer manufacturers advise against connecting them to one. Use a surge protector, or a UPS’s surge-only outlets, instead. Keep space heaters, refrigerators and other appliances off the UPS entirely.

Clinical equipment such as dental chairs and compressors has its own power requirements, so follow its manufacturer’s guidance rather than using a computer UPS.

How much UPS runtime you need

A UPS isn’t meant to keep you working through a long outage. Its job is to ride out brief flickers and give your server and computers time to shut down safely when the power stays off.

A UPS carries two ratings, VA and watts. To size one, add up the watts drawn by everything on its battery outlets and keep the total well below the watt rating. Manufacturers publish runtime charts that show how long each model lasts at a given load. Leave headroom, because batteries lose capacity as they age.

Automatic safe-shutdown software

A UPS only buys time. If the power fails overnight or on a weekend, the battery runs down and the server crashes anyway, just a little later.

Shutdown software closes that gap. The UPS connects to the server by a USB or network cable, and software on the server watches the battery. After a set time on battery, or when the charge runs low, it closes programs and shuts the server down in an orderly way. Many setups can shut down other computers on the network too.

Test it by simulating an outage during a quiet time, as the UPS manual describes, and confirm the server shuts down cleanly. Decide, too, whether each machine should restart on its own when the power returns.

Testing and replacing UPS batteries

A UPS with a worn-out battery can look just like one that works, until the power fails. Build these checks into your routine.

• Run the self-test regularly, and act on warning lights and beeps.
• Replace the battery every few years, following the manufacturer’s guidance, or sooner if a test fails.
• Label each UPS with the date its battery was installed.
• Keep it cool and ventilated, since heat shortens battery life.
• Replace surge protectors when the protection light goes out, or after a nearby lightning strike.

Surge protection for phone and network lines

A surge can also travel along the phone line, a cable internet connection or network cabling to reach your modem, router or computers.

Many surge protectors and UPS units have protected jacks for phone, coaxial or network cables, so route the incoming lines through them. Planning new lines? See our internet and phone line setup for dental offices.

Surge protectors also need properly grounded outlets to work as intended. A licensed electrician can check your wiring and advise on surge protection at the electrical panel.

A dental office power protection checklist

• Server, network equipment and front desk PC on a UPS
• Laser printers on a surge protector, not battery outlets
• Shutdown software installed and tested
• Enough runtime for a safe shutdown, with headroom
• UPS batteries tested and replaced on time
• Phone and internet lines surge protected
• Outlets and grounding checked by an electrician
• Current, tested backups of your practice data

Power protection limits damage, but it does not replace backups: a failed disk, ransomware or a burst pipe still calls for a safe copy of your data. Read our guide to dental office data backup and our guide to ransomware protection for dental offices.

Power planning also ties into the HIPAA Security Rule (45 CFR Part 164, Subpart C). Its contingency plan standard, 45 CFR 164.308(a)(7), calls for policies and procedures for responding to an emergency, such as a system failure, that damages systems containing electronic protected health information. It includes a data backup plan, a disaster recovery plan and an emergency mode operation plan. See our HIPAA Security Rule IT checklist.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.