I imagine most hospital CIOs are overwhelmed by the total number of systems and applications that they have to support. Hospital systems can have hundreds of applications that they’re required to support. Along with having to support the day to day operations of these systems, you also have to plan for business continuity and disaster recovery as well.
Every 6 months to a year, it seems we get a stark reminder of the need for good disaster recovery thanks to some devastating hurricane, earthquake, or other natural disaster. Plus, the stories of Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy and their impact at hospitals still ring in my ears and likely many other hospital CIOs.
Considering this background, I was intrigued by this Florida Hospital Case Study on Disaster Recovery. Obviously, Florida sits out there in a position that’s just waiting to be hit by a hurricane. So, good disaster recovery is a necessity for them.
What was most intriguing to me was that this hospital chose to use a managed recovery program from SunGard to make this a reality. While I don’t suggest outsourcing all of your disaster recovery (you need in house expertise deeply involved), I think it’s a great idea to work with a third party provider for your disaster recovery.
First, there are so many systems that it’s great to have a third party hold you accountable for all of your systems. Second, a third party can ensure that you do proper and regular disaster recovery testing of your systems. Third, they can provide an outside perspective that can improve your internal approach to disaster recovery.
Many of the above items can be done in house as well, but we all know that there’s a certain level of accountability that comes from having paid someone to hold you accountable. Otherwise, it’s really easy for one of your staff who’s being pulled in a hundred different directions to let your disaster recovery program slip through the cracks.
