By Brett Coughlin
Health IT Buzz Blog
Many people in New York and New Jersey have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Maybe you saw the report about 62-year-old Staten Island grandmother Phyllis Puglia, whose home was leveled by Hurricane Sandy but was able to begin to rebuild her life after the disaster.
NBC News showed the scene of Puglia Exit Disclaimer digging through the rubble of her home. Wearing a borrowed FDNY sweatshirt and weeping, Puglia unearthed cherished family photos and some other documents from the debris. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, people on the East Coast, especially those in New York and New Jersey, will be busy this Thanksgiving rebuilding their lives, so our thoughts are with them.
Puglia’s family photos got us thinking at ONC:
Were patient records lost or destroyed during the storm? Are these documents floating around Southern Manhattan or along the Jersey Shore somewhere? How did health information technology systems fare? The answer is, unfortunately, paper patient records were another casualty of the storm. Health information technology, meanwhile, held up well.
