By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    benefits of using protein powder to build muscles
    Protein Powder for Muscle Mass: Everything You Need to Know
    December 12, 2021
    changes brought on by blockchain in healthcare
    Technology In The Healthcare Industry
    March 28, 2022
    What Does Core Body Temperature Say About Health?
    August 17, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Do Electronic Health Records Reduce Malpractice Claims?
    February 2, 2013
    A Humble Opinion: Book Review
    May 3, 2015
    medicaid
    Paul Krugman: Stop Being an Embarrassment to the Profession
    March 7, 2013
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Secure Health Information Exchange: Preparing for a Disaster
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Secure Health Information Exchange: Preparing for a Disaster
eHealth

Secure Health Information Exchange: Preparing for a Disaster

onlinetech
onlinetech
Share
5 Min Read
HIPAA Hosting Requirements: Disaster Recovery & Offsite Backup
SHARE

The ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health) recently blogged about disaster preparedness and health information exchange (HIE), citing the recent Hurricane Isaac as a reason for concern about accessing and locating health records in another state. In the event of a natural disaster, many people are displaced in neighboring states and may need access to their health records.

The ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health) recently blogged about disaster preparedness and health information exchange (HIE), citing the recent Hurricane Isaac as a reason for concern about accessing and locating health records in another state. In the event of a natural disaster, many people are displaced in neighboring states and may need access to their health records.

To answer the question, are we ready? the ONC created a consortium with representatives from several Southeast states; the Southeast Regional HIT-HIE Collaboration (SERCH). Their recommendations for HIE between different states in the event of a disaster are as follows:

  • Review the state’s disaster response policies and laws. Connect with the state agency that is responsible for Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF) (Public Health and Medical Services) before a disaster strikes. ESF allows for coordinated federal assistance to supplement medical resources in an emergency.
  • One way to establish a waiver of liability for the release of records in the declaration of an emergency is to enact the Mutual Aid Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a type of contract.
  • In the event of a disaster, this also allows the default of state privacy and security laws to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This is helpful if one state has more stringent patient privacy and security laws than another. It ensures that if a patient is relocated away from the disaster site, they can still receive care and not be held up by state laws.
  • Consider using the Data Use and Reciprocal Support Agreement (DURSA)  to address patient privacy, security and data-sharing concerns. DURSA is a trust agreement between entities, organizations and federal agencies that choose to exchange electronic health information based on a set of national standards, services and policies. This ensures everyone is on the same page with security, and is useful in the event of a disaster when people are displaced.
  • Assess HIE resources and other available health data-sharing entities, and consider a phased approach when establishing interstate HIE:
  1. Phase 1 includes leveraging existing systems of storing and transmitting ePHI (electronic protected health information).
  2. Phase 2 includes implementing interstate directories to provide data across services in a disaster.
  3. Phase 3 includes leveraging a fully functioning state HIE that allows for integrated patient look-up and physician authentication services.
HIPAA Hosting Requirements: Disaster Recovery & Offsite Backup

HIPAA Hosting Requirements: Disaster Recovery & Offsite Backup

While preparing for HIE in the event of a disaster is key to providing quality care, preserving and ensuring the availability of patient records is a healthcare organization’s responsibility. The HIPAA Contingency Plan standard described in section 164.308(a)(7) mandates the use of a data backup plan, disaster recovery plan, emergency mode operation plan, testing and revision procedures, and application and data criticality analysis.

More Read

Massively Open Online Medicine: Bad Idea or Just Before Its Time?
Here’s What You Don’t Know about Telemedicine
The Potential and Challenges for Internet of Things in Healthcare
Can Mobile Devices Help Connect the Dots for Better Health Care?
Using Content Marketing to Deliver Inbound Patient Prospects

Protecting healthcare data and ensuring its availability means putting procedures in place to mitigate disasters, and having a solid plan in-hand to activate when a disaster occurs. The infrastructure to do this is defined by two perspectives:

  1. Disaster Prevention – Putting all the tools in place to minimize the probability of an outage in the data center infrastructure, server hardware, software and network connectivity.
  2. Disaster Recovery – Assuring that the applications and data can be recovered and restored in a reasonable timeframe to continue running the business and making patient data available if a disaster occurs in the primary data center.

The use of HIE systems, including EHR (electronic health record) and EMR (electronic medical record) systems, requires data to be hosted in a secure, HIPAA compliant environment. To find out what components are necessary for a HIPAA compliant data center, including a full diagram and descriptions, read our HIPAA Compliant Hosting white paper.

References:
DURSA from the National eHealth Collaborative
Disaster Preparedness and Health Information Exchange
Emergency Support Function #8 – Public Health and Medical Services Annex (PDF)
Southeast Regional HIT-HIE Collaboration (SERCH) Final Report: Health Information Exchange in Disaster Preparedness and Response (PDF)

TAGGED:disaster preparedness
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

eHealthTechnology

Chatbots – The New Healthcare Frontier

July 13, 2018
parachute-1209920_1920.jpg
eHealth

Want More New Patients for Your Medical Practice? Build Better Landing Pages

October 3, 2016

What’s Been Happening in mHealth: Update

October 19, 2012

How Health Insurance Navigators Are Handling Obamacare Website Glitches

October 11, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?