Legal and Ethical Issues in Health Informatics

Health facilities are fundamental. This means that it is important that they do not experience massive data loss, especially where the terror attack could result in a lot of casualties, hence the need for a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan. A study carried by the Ponemon Institute in 2013 showed that a loss of about $7,900 is experienced every minute the IT system is down. To ensure a loss of this nature is avoided, a well-designed recovery plan is critical (Peak10, 2017).

Several aspects are taken into account to ensure that a DR plan is well designed. A thorough risk assessment needs to be carried out to review all the assets. To go hand in hand with the risk assessment, a business impact analysis is required. Data safety, storage, and recovery are other important aspects. Recovery strategies also need to be stated to ensure that the process takes as little time as possible (Mag, 2012). To ensure all the above work, testing of the DRP is crucial. It can be done by doing drills, where personnel train on the various tasks they are required to do in case of an attack. Also, the system needs to undergo testing to ensure that it is flexible enough and well developed to survive a terror attack (Kirvan, 2009).

From a legal-ethical point, The Chief Nursing Informatics Officer is responsible ensuring that there is collaboration in the various departments to ensure that the solutions put in the DRP are up to date and reliable. It would also be my responsibility to act as the change agent and lead the process of implementing the DR plan when the terror attack occurs. To solve the issue of scarce resources, I would have a hot site built. It is a fully equipped location with a backup system put in place. It would minimise disruption and ensure that enough resources are available.

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References

HMT Mag. (2012). Best Practices in Healthcare Disaster Recovery Planning. Retrieved from https://www.healthmgttech.com/best-practices-in-heathcare-disaster-recovery-planning.php

Peak10. (2017). A Strong DR Plan Can Save Healthcare Organizations from Major Headaches. The Importanceof Disaster Recovery. Retrieved from: www.peak10.com/disaster-recovery-planning-critical-healthcare/

Kirvan P. (2009). IT Disaster Recovery(DR) plan template: A free download and guide. Retrieved from: http://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/feature/IT-disaster-recovery-DR-plan-template-A-free-download-and-guide