Survey finds need for better data storage at hospitals
Hospitals are putting themselves and their growing volumes of data at risk by continuing to rely on outdated and inefficient practices to back up and archive information, according to a study by a trade group of technology professionals within the health care industry.
The study was sponsored by Iron Mountain, the Boston-based storage and information management firm that has operations in Southborough and Northborough. It was conducted by HIMSS Analytics, the research and analytics arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, or HIMSS.
HIMSS also said the outdated and inefficient practices are “unnecessarily” straining technology storage budgets at hospitals.
The survey asked 150 senior-level technology professionals at hospitals across the country to assess how they protect data from potential loss or disaster as well as archive it to meet long-term compliance requirements. Among other findings, the survey revealed three areas for improvement:
- Most hospitals said they classify an average of 75 percent of their clinical data as “active,” meaning they store it onsite for immediate access, a surprising practice given that less than 30 percent of this data is accessed after 18 months, and could be moved to more cost-effective storage mediums, HIMSS said.
- A little more than half – 52 percent - of hospitals have a data archiving strategy, with 83 percent citing compliance as the chief reason. Yet with much of the active data not accessed over time, an archive strategy can help reduce the impact on limited information technology budgets, HIMSS said.
- There are data protection danger signs. Thirty-one percent of surveyed hospitals don’t have disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place, raising questions about their preparedness to continue to deliver emergency care. And, 42 percent of respondents don’t have a documented data retention policy that specifies how long to keep backup and archival data and when they can destroy it, posing legal and compliance risks for the organization, HIMSS concluded.
"By 2015, most hospitals are expected to have undergone a massive, data- and reform-driven transformation," said Lorren Pettit, vice president, market research for HIMSS Analytics. With all the guidelines for coding and sharing information, along with the move to electronic medical records, "hospitals will have created an exponential proliferation of data volume. As this survey shows, all that data is generating problems that senior health care IT executives are not currently considering, making the need to develop a successful strategy to manage and protect that data essential."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments