Even when damaged equipment is beyond the help of data recovery or restoration techniques, there are other places to look for--and recapture--data, according to the American Health Information Management Association.
1. Check non-clinical departments: You might be able to reprint or upload data and documents from undamaged databases. Check areas such as admission, transcription, or the business office, for example.
2. Look to the ancillary departments: Laboratory and radiology databases, for example, may have the data you're looking for.
3. Go back to the source: As long as documents exist in the dictation system, they can always be transcribed again.
4. Find partners in care: Primary care physicians, specialists, and other care givers may provide missing pieces of patients' records.
5. Go outside the neighborhood: Request copies of any records you sent to healthcare facilities outside of your own system or network.
Read more about health information disaster planning on AHIMA's web site.