In: Nursing
You work in a facility that was affected by a recent flood . You were more fortunate than most because only your basement was flooded. The problem is that your data center was in the basement . The data on the computers has been completely lost because the computers were destroyed. Unfortunately,the back-up tapes were located in the room next to the data center and were also destroyed. Fortunately, the HIM department is on the second floor and the charts are intact. Although your lab, radiology, dictated reports, and nursing notes were electronic, the reports has been printed out and filed in the medical record. The HIM director has been trying for a year to get the information sytem department to develop a contingency plan becuase she wants to stop filing the reports that are stored electronically. The IS staff has not recognized the need for the contingency plan, but the flood was catalyst that convinced them. 1.What recommedation do you have to ensure that your facility will not lose everything if another flood hits the area? Include both contingency and business continuity plans in you. recommendations. 2. The failure to implement contingency and business continuity plan could result in what types of problems?
As we all know that the data stored in electronic devices can be safe and confidential and on the other hand one cannot completely rely on elctronic devices. The reason is because it can be easily destroyed and damaged due to natural calamities like power shortage, floods, etc, or it maybe due to some technical errors like if the person handling such devices are not completely aware of the working process of the system.
I would recommend that the electrolic devices can be stored in a place where floods are not easily reached. And also that the electronic devices should not be completely relied on. It is better to have back up of all the datas and the drives can be kept in a very safe place where it can be protected from natural and man-made disasters. I would also recomment to have paper based data of the important medical records as we know it is much more reliable than electronic ways. Copies of important medical records can be kept in a safe place and precautions to be taken to prevent damage to them.
Failure to implement these plans can lead to diaster and complete permanent loss of the medical records which will later cause problems to the patient, health care provider and the total hospital and health care system.