The
rate at which natural disasters occur has been ramping up over the last few
decades. While these disasters have a hefty toll in many areas, today let’s
focus on how these disasters can impact your data and how Cloud
PACS can be part of your disaster recovery and business continuity
plan.
Thanks to HIPAA, healthcare providers have been required to have a disaster recovery
plan in place since 1996. As technology evolves and the number of disasters
increase, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at how you plan to keep your
data available at all times.
One major thing to consider as you plan your recovery
solution is that instead of investing in more servers for on-site solutions,
consider a virtual server environment, which we’ll discuss below.
Setting Up a Disaster Recovery Strategy
Take a look around and determine what type of natural disaster would most
likely impact you and your hardware. Californians are going to point to earthquakes
and wildfires as their main threats. If you’re on the Gulf Coast or along the
Eastern Seaboard, you’re going to keep an eye on solutions that will prevent
loss of data due to hurricanes. Midwesterners are prone to getting hit by large
and fast tornados. Your approach to protecting your data should take these
events into account.
Flooding can happen to just about anyone, whether it’s because of a storm or a
plumbing malfunction. If your radiology department is in the basement, this
could point to some very specific disaster recovery and business continuity
planning related to flooding.
Your plan needs to be comprehensive and account for how your staff will react
in the event of an emergency. Each person should have a specific role in
getting you back online as fast as possible.
The Role of Cloud PACS
When you have your data backed up in a remote location, whatever disaster
befalls your area will not have an impact on your data, which will be stored in
a geographically disparate location. This is a big perk in using cloud PACS,
but it’s just one of many.
If you partner with the right vendor, your data will be backed up in multiple
locations, all outfitted with the latest security protocols. This type of
redundancy gives you more assurances that your data will always be available to
you.
Another great aspect of partnering with a vendor with cloud PACS solutions is
that you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting – the vendor covers all the
updates and maintenance.
Furthermore, when you sign up with Offsite Image Management, a leader in
cloud-based radiology technology, you get administrative support, browser
agnostic viewer technology and software non-obsolescence, which means all
software purchases include a one-year warranty and a guarantee to receive
unlimited upgrades and updates.
Find out more about our Cloud PACS solution by contacting us today.
