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Fire destroys Hampstead doctor's office

Submitted by WWAY on Wed, 07/08/2009 - 6:04pm.READ MORE: Fire destroys Hampstead doctor's office
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A Hampstead doctor is looking toward the future after his family practice was destroyed by fire over the weekend. Doctor Shyam Garg had patient records on paper and on the computer, many of which were lost in the fire. Since the fire, a number of Dr. Garg's patients have contacted us, wondering what to do about their records and prescriptions, and asking if they need to get a new doctor. Mary Sheffield needed her medication. "I just wanted to get a refill on one of my prescriptions and I was coming by here, and I saw it had burned completely up." Woody Martin's wife was supposed to have an appointment on Monday. "I'd asked a lot of people, asked the fire department, nobody seemed to know." Dr. Shyam Garg wants his patients to know he'll still be there for them. "I'm not crying. I don't look sad. I'm not angry. I'm just empty, I just feel empty. There's no emotions here. When I walk around all I see is just empty, I can't believe it." At Garg’s office, there were over 5,000 patients’ medical records, many of which are completely destroyed, but some possibly salvageable. Some patients’ medical records were a computer that Dr. Garg is going to send to data recovery experts who seem to think they're going to be able to retrieve them. But Dr. Garg says not to worry. "The biggest record is my brain. My patients will tell you if I saw them 15 years back, I would remember exactly what they came for, so one record is my brain." Dr. Garg is now asking his patients to be patient. He's already signed a lease to open up an office just down the road at Hampstead Village Complex. He will start seeing patients as early as Monday, which comes as welcome news for his patients. Doctor Garg says if his patients have any questions, they can call the old office number and leave a message. He says he'll get back to them by the end of the day. Dr. Garg says he’s also happy to call pharmacies to help people with their prescriptions.

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Data Recovery

Submitted by itguru (not verified) on Wed, 07/08/2009 - 10:55pm.
This inceident as unfortunate as it is, dictates and reiterates the need for physician offices to send their records off-site to a bonded and reputable data center. If the patient records had of been stored off-site, the could have been retrieved (depending on the EMR system) and set back up within 24-48 hours as a temp fix and within a week permanently with all data restored. However.. it is NOT this physician's fault. The majority of physician offices in Wilmington do NOT offload their data to somewhere secure like Ironmountain (HIPAA compliancy must be followed in this instance) but the bottom line is, none of us can be certain when disaster might strike. I cannot count in the past few years, these fly-by-night, $40 an hour "computer specialist" that have had no HIPAA compliancy training that are setting up physician offices and the backup is an on-site detachable usb hard drive, and the security is a free edition of avg antivirus.. neither of which are secure, compliant or disaster proof... There is a very true saying in technology... You get what you pay for... An incident like this statistically can cost up to $10,000 per patient record... Physicians... please stop using these $40 computer workers that are unemployed and have no HIPAA compliance training and certification and pay to have things done right the first time... It will pay off in the long run.... As a patient, you have the right to ask how your patient data is being stored, protected, and backed up.. I reccomend you ask.. Otherwise you could inadvertently be without your patient history... And no I do not service healthcare any longer.. I did however work in helathcare IT for many years and have received HIPAA certifications from complaincy to security.. I cannot reccomend anyone as I no longer keep in touch with who is current.. But I can tell you there are not many consultants in our area who are... Physicians.. Ask to see your IT worker's credentials... At the minimum, they should have a HIPAA awarness credential certification... And patients... next time you are at your doctor... ask them questions regarding the security and backup of YOUR patient data.. If you hear avg, and a usb drive..... run...
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