How prepared are Health Information Services for system failures due to internal disasters? Cheens Lee, Kerin Robinson, Kate Wendt and Dianne Williamson 26 th September 2008

What if?

What is a disaster? ‘An occurrence that causes serious disruption or disables necessary business functions’ (Corrigan 1995) External Disasters

Internal disaster definition is any disaster or event that originates in the wider organisation (i.e. the hospital or network) or within the Health Information Service, and affects the infrastructure, staff, equipment, systems, services, normal functioning or business continuity of the Health Information Services.

Examples of internal disasters –Hardware or software malfunction –Power failure –Water pipe breaks –Construction accidents –Fire –Sabotage –Employee/ex- employee violence –Sewer blockages –Equipment failure –Hazardous material leak –Security breach

Context of study Risk Management Contingency Plans Business Continuity Plans

Documented disasters in Victorian Health Information Services Warringal Private Hospital The Royal Children’s Hospital

Aim of the study To investigate the level of preparedness of Victorian public and private sector hospitals’ Health Information Services in the event of system failures due to internal disasters or events that severely impede normal functioning.

Methodology Combined quantitative-qualitative methodology. Hospitals surveyed (i) a Health Information Service department (ii) a bed capacity of 80-plus admitted beds; and (iii) a manager of the Health Information Service department

Who responded? 38 hospitals –30 metropolitan; equal public and private –8 non-metropolitan; 7 public

Metropolitan and rural hospitals overall questionnaire response rate, according to hospital size Metropolitan Rural Hospital sizePublicPrivatePublicPrivateTotal Small Medium Large Total

Internal disasters experienced by the organisation within the last 10 years, according to hospital size Hospital sizeYesNoTotal Small 9 (56%)716 Medium 4 (36%)711 Large 6 (55%)511 Total 19 (50%)1938

Types of internal disasters experienced by the respondents’ organisations within the last 10 years

Types of disaster contingency plans within Health Information Services, according to hospital size. Hospital size Internal only % External only % Internal & External % Did not answerTotal Small Medium Large Total

Types of scenarios provided for in the internal disaster plan(s)

Resource allocation to disaster planning Equipment back-up Staff Procedures/equipment Budget Back-up Patient Master Index Fire training

Health Information Services that have a back-up system in the event of an internal disaster Hospital SizeYes (%)No Did not answerTotal Small 10 (62.5%)5116 Medium 8 (72.7%)3011 Large 9 (81.8%)1111 Total 27 (71%)9238

Types of back-up systems in place in the event of an internal disaster

Recovery plan ready to take effect following an internal disaster Hospital SizeYes (%) Small 6 (37.5%) Medium 6 (54.5%) Large 8 (72.7%) Total 20 (52.6%)

What was interesting? Within the last 10 years 50% of hospitals have experienced at least 1 internal disaster Larger hospitals are better prepared to avoid and recover from internal disasters Respondent hospitals generally rate themselves at a ‘medium’ level of preparedness

Thank You