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Hospital building data backup center [The Salina Journal, Kan.](Salina Journal (KS) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 06--Construction is scheduled to begin in the next week on a $3.5 million, off-site, data backup center for Salina Regional Health Center. The data backup center at the northwest corner of Iron and Penn avenues is designed to withstand floods and tornadoes. The 10,000-square-foot building, which is expected to be completed within seven to eight months, will house a backup server to store medical records from Salina Regional Health Center. "This data center will be a hardened data center," said Larry Barnes, vice president and chief information officer at Salina Regional Health Center. "It will be able to withstand tornadoes up to F3 size and (other) natural disasters." The building was designed by Reliable Resources, of Minnetonka, Minn. Barnes said the hospital began planning for the data center last year, even before an F5 tornado struck Joplin, Mo., on May 22. Joplin's hospital, St. John's Regional Medical Center, suffered extensive damage. Like other businesses, Barnes said, hospitals struck by tornadoes have a hard time recovering. He said hospitals in Joplin and Georgia lost many records when they were struck by tornadoes. "We look at business continuity, involving natural disasters, because our business is dependent on those records," Barnes said. Barnes said the data center also will help the hospital move toward its goal of becoming paperless by October 2012. "As information technology becomes integrated into patient care, tolerance for downtime becomes zero," Barnes said. "As we move into more advanced clinical systems, it is becoming evident that we need to eliminate any probability of downtime." -- Reporter Chris Hunter can be reached at 822-1422 or by email at [email protected]. ___ (c)2011 The Salina Journal (Salina, Kan.) Visit The Salina Journal (Salina, Kan.) at www.saljournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |