Disaster Planning
Posted by Cheri Whalen on Tue, Jul 06, 2010 @ 02:01 PM
Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning for providers should not be taken lightly. Prior planning could mean a more comprehensive recovery should a disaster befall your agency. In this article I will discuss how your agency can prepare, recover, and continue operations.
If you have time to prepare for a disaster (such as a hurricane), you can backup your patient data and print documents from your system including :
- On Call report (giving you details about all your patients on service)
- Master Listing of Active Personnel (giving you personnel details)
- Employee Detail Calendar (giving you details of scheduled visits)
If your agency experiences a disaster, you can use these reports to immediately contact your patients and employees to assess their situations and resume visits or contact emergency officials.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR DATA
HEALTHCAREfirst customers benefit from our hosting their data in a secure facility in Missouri … it is protected from a disaster at their location. Some of the Data Facility features include: redundant uninterruptible power supplies, redundant power generators located underground, multi-homed internet connectivity to Tier-1 providers, divergent fiber optic paths out of Data Facility, and state-of-the-art fire suppression.
If your agency hosts your own data, it is important decide how to protect your data in preparation for a disaster … before the disaster happens:
- Backup your database and store a copy to an off-site secure location
- Move your server and workstations to a safe location
- Setup an emergency server at a safe location
- Use off-site data hosting options
If your equipment is damaged in the disaster, data backups can be restored to your new/replacement equipment and you can resume operations.
REMEMBER to back up any other important data for your agency and store it in a secure off-site location.
For more regulatory news and information, visit Cheri's blog at Regulatory Blog