The residents at a Mississippi nursing home were all declared safe after a tornado swept through the state, killing 11.
The campus of Winston Medical Center in Louisville, MS, including its nursing home, were hit by a tornado Tuesday. In a series of statements on its website and Facebook page, the nursing home stressed that no residents were injured and asked families not to come to campus to pick up personal belongings.
“We are proud to have had no injuries during this catastrophe. WMC is committed to getting repaired and back running as quickly as possible,” the center said. There was water damage and holes in the roof of the main center, according to local reports.
The disaster was a reminder of how nursing homes must have emergency preparedness plans, including a backup site for protected health information, including resident records and other data, an expert told an audience at the annual LeadingAge Illinois (formerly Life Services Network) meeting in Chicago on Wednesday.
In particular, the destruction of physical infrastructure underscores the importance of having encrypted, off-site storage of data, said Chance Bunger, MBA, manager at CliftonLarsonAllen LLP.
