Why Backup & Disaster Recovery is Now a Board-Level Priority for Health Systems
Healthcare IT is no longer just an operational concern – it has become a strategic, boardroom-level issue. In recent years, cyberattacks on hospitals and health systems have skyrocketed, exposing patient data and disrupting critical care. For example, industry analyses show that since 2018, U.S. healthcare organizations reported about 654 ransomware incidents, compromising roughly 89 million patient records.
In 2024 alone, 67% of healthcare providers suffered a ransomware breach, and over half of those attacks led organizations to pay a ransom (median ~$1.5 million) to regain access.
These disruptions can cripple hospitals: one major health network’s May 2024 attack locked down electronic records across ~140 hospitals, delaying lab results and care and causing an estimated $1.1–$1.6 billion in losses.
Another breach of a healthcare data processor affected 100 million patient records and cost the insurer-provider about $2.5 billion.
- Since 2018, 654 U.S. healthcare ransomware attacks have been reported (143 in 2023 alone).
- These attacks exposed about 89 million patient records over the same period
- Each day of IT downtime costs hospitals roughly $1.9 million on average, adding up to an industry‑wide loss of ~$22 billion in recent years.
- The average cost of a healthcare data breach is now on the order of $9.8 million – more than double the all‐industry average.
- Recent cases include a system-wide EHR lockdown in 2024 (projected $1.1–$1.6B loss) and a healthcare clearinghouse breach impacting 100M patients ($2.5B loss).
These statistics highlight why healthcare boards can no longer treat backup and disaster recovery as a back-office task. Boards and executives now see cyber resilience as a critical part of patient care and financial stewardship.
Major health IT reports note that ransomware has “brought backup out of the basement” into board discussions; data recovery is now regarded as “a critical business continuity concern at the board level,”. Instead of just preventing attacks, leaders must ensure rapid recovery so care isn’t halted.
Top Reasons Why Backup & Disaster is a Board-Level Priority for Health Systems
1. Patient Care and Safety at Risk
Beyond dollars, ransomware and outages directly endanger patients. Downtime in hospital systems “disrupts the patient care process, deactivates safety measures, and can compromise patient safety”.
In practical terms, an EHR outage means doctors can’t access charts, labs can’t report results, and even medication orders may be delayed or erroneous.
- Studies have documented major delays in lab turnaround times (e.g. up ~62% longer) during system downtime.
- Regulators and public health officials stress this reality: the World Health Organization has warned that ransomware attacks on hospitals are “issues of life and death,” since they can immobilize critical care systems.
- Hospitals’ dependence on digital records has only grown (96% have EHRs as of 2015), so any outage hits hard.
Cyberattacks make things worse: during an attack-induced downtime, “most or all of the systems are compromised and must be taken offline to clean and restore,” and often no backups are accessible until the crisis is contained.
In other words, cyber disasters can leave a hospital entirely dark, with paper charting the only option. These patient-safety stakes have pushed executive leadership to prioritize disaster recovery planning alongside cybersecurity prevention.
2. Regulatory and Financial Pressures
Health systems also face growing regulatory scrutiny for cyber incidents. Agencies are tightening rules and timelines for reporting and recovery.
- For example, a proposed update to the HIPAA Security Rule would mandate that organizations restore electronic patient data within 72 hours of a cyberattack.
- Similarly, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Cybersecurity Disclosure Rule (adopted in 2023) now requires public companies, including large healthcare providers, to report material cyber incidents within roughly 4 business days and describe board-level oversight of cyber risk.
These requirements mean healthcare boards and executives are legally accountable for ensuring resilient IT systems. This accountability carries real costs.
Besides the operational losses, regulators can fine institutions for breaches or a lack of preparedness.
- Industry experts note that cyber incidents are increasingly creating personal and institutional liability.
- One analysis observes a disconnect: boards rank regulatory compliance as their top cyber priority, while IT leaders focus more on prevention – a gap that can lead to overlooked risks.
- New legislative proposals even contemplate removing caps on HIPAA fines and holding executives criminally responsible for misrepresenting security practices.
In short, boards now worry that failing to secure backups and recovery plans could have severe financial and legal repercussions.
The Role of Backup & Disaster Recovery in Resilience
Given these trends, effective backup and disaster recovery (DR) are viewed as survival tools, not just IT chores. Board members increasingly ask hard questions:
- Who owns cyber risk?
- What are our Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for critical systems? How often do we test our plans?
To answer, health systems need measurable resilience metrics.
Key indicators include actual vs. target RTO (how fast systems come back online), RPO (maximum tolerable data loss), mean-time-to-recover, uptime SLAs, and frequency/success rate of recovery drills. Tracking these metrics assures leaders that recovery plans will work when needed.
One industry survey found that 89% of organizations had their backup repositories targeted during a ransomware attack, and about one-third saw their backup data modified or deleted.
This underlines why backups must be secured as vigorously as primary systems. Modern DR strategies, therefore, emphasize isolated and immutable backups – for example, cloud copies that cannot be erased by attackers or automated snapshots stored offline. Having these “last line” backups means even if live systems are encrypted, data can be restored from a trusted source.
Best Practices for Resilient Backup and DR
Healthcare providers should implement a multi-layered backup and recovery approach. Best practices include:
1. Immutable, off-site backups
Keep backups in a protected, write-once location (such as cloud storage with immutability settings or an air-gapped vault) so ransomware cannot erase or encrypt the backup files.
2. Frequent, automated backups
Data should be backed up continuously or at least hourly, not just nightly. More frequent backups reduce potential data loss and shorten RPO windows.
3. Regular recovery testing
Routine drills and failover tests are essential. Healthcare organizations are advised to periodically simulate disaster scenarios (including ransomware attacks) to verify that systems can be restored within the target RTO and that staff know the procedures. (Studies have noted that many hospitals have plans on paper but don’t test them adequately.)
4. Cloud and multi-site redundancy
Using cloud-based DR solutions or multiple data centers ensures that an outage at one site (or a regional disaster) won’t take out both the primary data and its backups. With cloud backup/DR-as-a-service, systems can be stood up quickly in an alternate region.
5. Data segmentation and prioritization
Identify the most critical systems (e.g., EHR, lab systems, pharmacy) and ensure they have the shortest RTO/RPO. This often means replicating high-priority data more frequently and storing it on the most resilient infrastructure.
6. Comprehensive incident plans
Beyond technology, every DR plan should include clear roles (including executive oversight), communication protocols, and compliance checklists.
For example, plans should note how and when to notify authorities and patients, and how to resume care (e.g., establishing temporary alternative care sites if IT is down).
Related: Downtime is a Million-Dollar Risk: Enterprise BCDR Strategies for 2025
By following these practices, a health system can recover from a disaster, whether natural or cyber-induced, with minimal downtime and data loss.
As one security expert notes, “carrying out regular backups is critical when it comes to limiting downtime” after an attack. In essence, reliable backups and recovery readiness let hospitals treat outages as a manageable (if serious) emergency, rather than a paralyzing catastrophe.
Secure Your Health System’s Future with CapMinds Cloud-Based BDR Solutions
In a world where every second counts and patient trust is on the line, CapMinds delivers the digital foundation your healthcare organization needs.
Our comprehensive health tech services are purpose-built to protect, recover, and ensure the continuity of care, no matter what crisis arises.
We specialize in helping hospitals, private practices, and enterprise health systems modernize their data resilience strategies. With CapMinds, you get:
- Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery (DR): Rapid recovery with minimal downtime, built for healthcare.
- Secure Data Backup: Encrypted, automated, and HIPAA-compliant backup strategies tailored to your needs.
- Data Warehousing & Storage: Scalable infrastructure to manage growing clinical and operational data.
- End-to-End Health IT Expertise: From planning to implementation and ongoing support.
Let CapMinds help you stay prepared, compliant, and protected—so your team can focus on what matters most: patient care.
