Electronic health records provide convenience and user-friendly application to your medical facility. In best practice it is ideal to prepare a backup in the case a EHR (electronic health record) failure occurs. Here are a few steps you can take to prepare your medical facility in the event a disaster occurs.
EHR Failures Do Occur
In most cases an EHR system is usually backup into a cloud system. Nonetheless, a cloud based system is not foolproof and mistakes do happen. Therefore, it’s just as important to keep a local backup in the event a failure does occur as well as an offsite backup, much like a cloud storage. In which case, a local backup also serves a useful purpose in the case a network is offline, and clients require assistance.
Keep Things Moving
Planning for the worst includes developing a plan to mitigate in the case failure occurs. With an onsite backup your data is stored on the premises. This allows for data to be accessed quickly without requiring a strong internet connection. In which case, onsite data can be protected using disaster protected storage devices, much like a DAS (Direct Attached Storage) or a NAS (Network Attached Storage). A remote backup also ensures that the data is secured in a separate location. Typically, in cloud storage the data is usually kept on multiple servers, so in the case one would stop working your data can still be retrieved without any issues.
Consider Recovery Methods
Having both an onsite and remote backup method decreases the risk of data loss. The best way to ensure that backups are consistent is to setup a backup schedule. Some variables to consider are whether to fully backup your server or incrementally backup your server on a regular basis, what files, how often the backup takes place, where the data is going to be stored and ease of access.
It is recommended that electronic health records be backed up daily in order to maintain security of your records and comply with HIPAA regulations. For more information on backups, or disaster planning please contact Kitsap Networking Services.
Comments