Some Hard Survey Data During is Week of #HIManity by Michl Leonard

We can do better! It's a term we all have heard and most likely have used when it comes to our performance at work, school, sports, or at home. We like to set goals and we strive to be better, always trying to improve in some way. HIMSS Analytics just published a new report, The Perfect Storm: Navigating the Health IT Archiving and Data Management Challenge , which asked 150 senior-level technology professionals at hospitals across the country how they protect data from loss and disaster. The results show we definitely have room for improvement when it comes to protecting the critical data created every day inside our healthcare institutions.

The HIMSS conference is always a great opportunity to learn about the many new solutions designed to help improve patient care and streamline the delivery of healthcare to patients. What is not always given enough thought is how to protect and manage all of the data that is created from these solutions, and how to keep these systems online all the time. I will be the first to admit that's not the glamorous aspect of healthcare IT, but I will also say we can do better. There were several findings that stand out for me:

Only half of the respondents have an archiving strategy in place. Archiving and Backup are 2 distinct disciplines and should be treated as such. Taking a proactive approach to archiving will benefit an organization in the long run from both a cost and compliance perspective.

31% don't have disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place. While I understand there are many competing priorities, I believe that an actionable DR and BC strategy is a must have for any healthcare organization.

75% of all data under management is treated as active data. Organizations should review and classify their data so that they are storing it in the most appropriate type of storage.

To overcome these challenges, it is important to implement an enterprise wide data management strategy to deliver the proper level of data protection and retention policies for your clinical and business data.

If you are attending #HIMSS14 here in Orlando and you are interested in seeing how your data management practices compare with those of your peers, please stop by the Iron Mountain booth, #5564 to get a copy of the report. For more information about this survey and much more, please visit www.ironmountain.com/HealthIT. Have a great week of #HIMSSanity!

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/industry/healthcare-information-man...
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