Health Information Management

Department Disaster Recovery

Mary Kobren
March 3, 2015

What is a Disaster

Any event that can compromise the proper

operation of an organization.

Bomb Threat
Hurricane
Tornado
Fire
Flood
etc

This discussion will focus on Health

Information Systems

Why do we need to be
ready?
Health information can be critical to patient
outcomes
HIPPA requires data backup, disaster
recovery, and emergency mode operations
planning
Health Information Technology for Economic
and Clinical Health Act has increased the
fines and penalties over HIPAA
Risks of Litigation costs

Communications

Our department has created a call tree

process in case of an emergency
Department roster with multiple contact
information
A text, email and phone call will go to each
staff member
A successful contact must be a confirmation
not a left message

An emergency situation team is always on

call
This is key personnel that will have duties
during an emergency

Once all staff is accounted for, emergency

team will report of duty

Backup of Key Information

All key electronic systems are backed up
daily
Electronic backups are combined
monthly and stored at a 3rd party
Information storage facility
Backups are encrypted to protect
sensitive information
Bonded currier is used to transfer
backups to 3rd party location

Recovery
Our 3rd party vendor that stores our
backup information also have the ability
for us to reload our systems and
information
First approach would be to restore
Health Information to current systems.
In the case those systems are not
working, recovery will be done at the 3rd
party location
Documented procedures for recovery
processes are known by Health
Information Management staff

Periodic Testing
We do a table top exercise walking
through emergency operations every 6
months
Once a year we roll-play a disaster
event
The plan is also reviewed and updated
once a year

Works Cited

Planning for the Unthinkable: AHIMA Introduces Disaster Planning and

Recovery Toolkit by Casey Holmes on Aug 28, 2013 Journal of AHIMA site,
http://journal.ahima.org/2013/08/28/planning-for-the-unthinkable-ahima-i
ntroduces-disaster-planning-and-recovery-toolkit/
, retrieved 3/3/2015
HIPAA disaster recovery plan posted by Margaret Rouse, on the
WhatIs.com site, retrieved from
http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/definition/HIPAA-disaster-recovery-p
lan
, on 3/3/2015
Best practices in healthcare disaster recovery planning by Nav Ranajee,
May 2012 Healthmgttech.com site,
http://www.healthmgttech.com/articles/201205/best-practices-in-healthca
re-disaster-recovery-planning.php
retrieved on 3/3/2015