Hospitals need better and more consistent strategies for backing up
and archiving data to aid compliance, reduce risk and deliver expected
benefits of technology-driven patient care
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Despite skyrocketing volumes of data, many hospitals still rely on
outdated and inefficient practices to backup and archive information,
putting data and organizations at risk and unnecessarily straining IT
storage budgets. This is the central finding from a study of data backup
and archiving practices at hospitals, conducted by HIMSS Analytics, the
research and analytics arm of the Healthcare
Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and sponsored by Iron
Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM), the storage and information
management company.
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 areas for
improvement including:
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Not all data is created equally. A majority of 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.
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Only half have an archive strategy in place. Fifty-two percent
of respondents reported that they have a data archiving strategy in
place, 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 IT budgets.
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There are data protection danger signs. Thirty-one percent
don’t currently have disaster recovery and business continuity plans
in place, raising questions on their preparedness to continue
delivering care in an emergency situation. 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.
“The amount of data flowing through our healthcare system today has
rendered the old ways of managing it obsolete,” said Michael Leonard,
director of product management, Healthcare IT Services for Iron
Mountain. “If you look at this survey, you’ll conclude that most
hospitals continue to treat all data the same and don’t sufficiently
tier it based on its importance and access requirements. Data vital to
the business and near-term clinical operations should be backed up to
remote data centers, allowing for fast access and protecting the data
from extreme weather events or other disasters that could wipe out
onsite servers. Less active data being kept for compliance reasons or
future research needs doesn’t require the same level of access and can
be stored on offline media.”
For those hospitals looking to improve their data backup and archiving
practices, Iron Mountain recommends:
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Establish clear policies defining what data should be stored where
and why. Organizations should base these policies on criteria such
as the age of the data and the data type. Once set, these policies
provide clarity on how to tier data and choose the right storage
medium; e.g., SAN storage, cloud storage and removable media such as
magnetic tape cartridges. Organizations following this strategy keep
the most current data readily accessible and reduce their storage
costs by placing the oldest data onto less expensive media.
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Policies must account for disaster or data loss. Having the
right policies in place for retention, destruction and disaster
recovery can help ensure information is protected and available when
you need it. First, prioritize the data that’s critical to getting the
organization back up and running, then make sure it is stored in the
right tier whether that means in the cloud, replicated in a data
center, or on magnetic tape cartridges.
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Consider automation and outsourcing to stay ahead of rising data
volumes. As healthcare data volumes continue to grow—some
estimates say as much as 40 percent annually—hospitals should prepare
themselves by deploying a data lifecycle management strategy and
enlist the help of partners to properly implement data backup and
archiving practices. Outsourcing allows hospitals to offload their
storage management burden, reducing the need to incur large capital
expenses and labor costs.
“By 2015, most hospitals are expected to have undergone a massive, data-
and reform-driven transformation,” said Lorren Pettit, vice president,
market research, HIMSS Analytics. “Between the conversion to ICD-10 for
better coding, meeting Meaningful Use milestones for data sharing at the
point-of-care, and the continued influx of EMR/EHR systems, hospitals
will have created an exponential proliferation of data volume. As this
survey shows, all that data is generating problems that senior
healthcare IT executives are not currently considering, making the need
to develop a successful strategy to manage and protect that data
essential.”
For more information on this survey, visit www.ironmountain.com/HealthIT.
To learn more about Iron Mountain’s solutions for managing healthcare
information, visit www.ironmountain.com/Solutions/Healthcare.aspx.
About HIMSS Analytics
HIMSS Analytics is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. The company
collects and analyzes healthcare data related to IT processes and
environments, products, IS department composition and costs, IS
department management metrics, healthcare trends and purchase-related
decisions. HIMSS Analytics delivers high quality data and analytical
expertise to healthcare delivery organizations, healthcare IT companies,
state governments, financial companies, pharmaceutical companies, and
consulting firms. Visit www.himssanalytics.org
for more information.
About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a leading provider of storage
and information management services. The company’s real estate network
of over 64 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 36
countries allows it to serve customers with speed and accuracy. And its
solutions for records
management, data
management, document
management, and secure
shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with
regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information for
business advantage. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects
billions of information assets, including business documents, backup
tapes, electronic files and medical data. Visit www.ironmountain.com
for more information.
Source: Iron Mountain Incorporated