Business continuity in the healthcare sector

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Business continuity in the healthcare sector

BridgeHead Software has released the full results from its second-annual Healthcare Data Management (HDM) survey which determined that healthcare IT leaders around the world consider disaster recovery and business continuity their most pressing data management need. Of the survey responders, 65 percent said their data volumes had increased over the previous year, yet only 26 percent said they had ‘robust, tried-and-tested’ disaster recovery plans in place.

Disaster recovery was voted the top healthcare IT investment priority for the second year in a row. The survey also confirmed that hospitals want more control over medical image data generated by Picture Archive and Communication Systems (PACS).

Jim Beagle, CEO of BridgeHead Software, said, "In the face of unstoppable data growth, it is becoming a serious challenge for hospitals to store and protect patient data while also making it available for clinicians in a timely manner at the point of care. Results from this year's Healthcare Data Management survey indicate that hospitals are still grappling with many of the same IT challenges they faced last year, particularly with regards to business continuity and disaster recovery."

To combat these and other challenges, many hospitals are actively investing in data management technologies that give them more control over their information: a practice that has positive effects for several important areas of healthcare IT including: interoperability, data access, IT efficiency, reducing IT costs, energy efficiency and disaster recovery.

Other key findings from the survey:

65 percent said data volumes had increased over the previous year, 30 percent did not know how much data volumes had changed, and 5 percent said data volumes had decreased or stayed the same;
PACS applications were cited as the number-one reason for healthcare data growth (63 percent), followed by files held in the electronic health record (54 percent) and scanned documents such as proof of insurance (51 percent);
64 percent said their organizations had some kind of disaster recovery strategy in place, but the majority (38 percent) had never been tested;
45 percent said their facilities were planning a major storage upgrade (1 TB or more) in the next year..

To download an executive summary of the results from the survey, please visit www.bridgeheadsoftware.com/resources/download/456

•Date: 29th June 2012 • US/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC in the health sector

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