Managing health information during disasters.

Providing continuing patient care when healthcare infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed requires careful advanced planning. Substantial numbers of patients will seek medical care during a disaster, including those injured during the acute phase of the disaster, those injured in recovery and evacuation attempts, and the chronically ill who have been displaced and do not have access to their medications. As a vital department of any healthcare facility, the Health Information Service (HIS) should have a planned response for retrieving medical records, and allocating new ones, should a disaster situation occur. Problems that may be encountered by the HIS at hospitals or healthcare facilities should be identified and responses that mitigate these problems should be discussed by staff and included in a disaster plan that can be activated in a timely manner. A disaster planning strategy for the management of medical records in health facilities is outlined in this paper.