| Course | HI575 Protection of Health Information |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Contingency and recovery plan |
| Length | About 890 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MS in Health Informatics |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HI575 Unit 9
An Hour Before the First Incision: A Unit 9 Contingency and Recovery Plan Built Around Decisions and a Restore Test That Missed
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HI575: Protection of Health Information
Unit 9 Contingency and Recovery Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Tollbridge Orthopedic Group, its systems, objectives and test results are composite; the rule and sources cited are real.
Criticality
Each system's recovery objectives follow from what stops when it is down, not from what the backup product happens to achieve. Two numbers are set for each system: how long Tollbridge can manage without it (the recovery time objective) and how much recent work it could stand to re-create (the recovery point objective).
1. Hosted health record: stops all clinical documentation and scheduling; dependency internet connection; recovery time and point set by the vendor contract at four hours and fifteen minutes.
2. Imaging archive: stops surgical planning and image review; dependency on-site server and network; recovery time two hours, recovery point one day.
3. Surgery center network: stops anesthesia record printing and archive access in the operating rooms; dependency network closet power; recovery time one hour.
4. Billing platform: stops claim submission; vendor hosted; recovery time three days, recovery point one day.
5. Email: stops referrals and outside communication; vendor hosted; recovery time one day.
6. Fax server: stops referrals and prior authorizations; on site; recovery time one day, recovery point one day.
7. Patient portal: stops patient messages; vendor hosted; recovery time two days.
8. Shared drive: stops spreadsheets and forms; on site; recovery time two days, recovery point one day.
9. Phone system: stops scheduling calls; vendor hosted; recovery time four hours.
10. Therapy app: stops home exercise updates; vendor hosted; recovery time three days.
11. Texting vendor: stops reminders; vendor hosted; recovery time five days.
Backup Design
On-site systems are backed up nightly to a local appliance, and a daily copy goes offsite to storage that cannot be altered or deleted once written for thirty days, so that ransomware reaching the local network cannot encrypt it. Backup failure alerts go to the IT contractor's on-call phone and to the privacy officer, with a call to the practice administrator after two consecutive failures. Federal contingency guidance recommends that backup design be checked against each system's objectives, not assumed to meet them (Swanson et al., 2010).
The Restore Test
In September, the full imaging archive was restored from the offsite copy to a test server. The restore took five hours, not the two hours the objective requires, because the offsite link transfers about 1.5 terabytes an hour and the archive holds about 7.5 terabytes. Restoring the most recent six months of studies first took fifty minutes.
The backup worked; the recovery did not meet its target, and only a real restore test could have shown the difference.
Decision on the Shortfall
The practice administrator chose a two-part response, signed and dated in the plan: restore recent studies first, which meets the surgical need within an hour, and accept a six-hour objective for the full archive until a faster offsite link is installed next quarter at an estimated 400 dollars a month.
Emergency Mode Operation
Written as decisions with owners and times:
1. Imaging archive down at 7:00 on a surgery morning. By 7:15 the surgery center director checks which cases need images not already on the surgeons' planning workstations. By 7:30 the director decides, case by case, to proceed with images retrieved from the modality or the outside facility, or to postpone. Postponements are called to patients by 8:00.
2. Hosted record down. Clinics switch to downtime forms and the read-only copy refreshed every four hours on one workstation per site. The front desk lead decides at the two-hour mark whether to reschedule non-urgent visits.
3. Network closet power lost at the surgery center. The battery lasts fifteen minutes; the facilities lead moves the closet onto the generator circuit using the transfer switch installed last year.
Communication During an Outage
Staff learn of an outage by text from the practice administrator, not by email, since email may be the system that is down. Patients with appointments in the next four hours receive a call from the front desk if their visit is affected. Surgeons are called individually by the surgery center director for any case that may be postponed, and the director records each decision in the downtime log with the time it was made. When the system returns, the IT contractor confirms data integrity before staff resume normal work, and the downtime forms are entered into the record within one business day by the medical assistants at each site.
Role Cards
Four one-page cards, kept printed at each site: surgery center director, front desk lead, IT contractor on call and practice administrator. Each card lists the person's first three actions, who to call, and the decision that is theirs alone.
Testing and Maintenance
The plan is tested twice a year: one restore test and one tabletop exercise using the surgery-morning scenario. The Security Rule's contingency standard expects backup, a recovery plan and a way to keep operating during an outage, with testing listed as an addressable step (45 C.F.R. § 164.308, 2024). The resource guide recommends that tests confirm the plan works, not only that backups complete (Marron, 2024).
References
45 C.F.R. § 164.308 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-C/part-164/subpart-C/section-164.308
Marron, J. A. (2024). Implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule: A cybersecurity resource guide (NIST Special Publication 800-66r2). National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-66r2
Swanson, M., Bowen, P., Phillips, A. W., Gallup, D., & Lynes, D. (2010). Contingency planning guide for federal information systems (NIST Special Publication 800-34, Revision 1). National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-34r1
HI575 Unit 9 instructions, in plain terms
The ninth unit commonly asks for a contingency plan covering backup, disaster recovery, emergency mode operation and testing. Expect a criticality ranking with recovery objectives, a backup design, test results, emergency procedures and role assignments. Nine pages plus role cards is a typical scope. Derive each system's objectives from what stops when it is down, not from what the backup tool achieves. Test a restore, not just a backup, and report the result honestly even if it misses the target. Record any decision about a shortfall and who made it. Write emergency operation as decisions with owners and times. Include a testing schedule and a plan for communicating during an outage.
Inside the HI575 Unit 9 example
A criticality section explains the two recovery objectives and ranks eleven systems, from the hosted record to the texting vendor. The backup design describes nightly local copies, an offsite copy that cannot be altered for thirty days, and alerts routed to named people. The restore test section reports five hours against a two-hour target and the bandwidth reason, and the highlighted sentence separates a working backup from a recovery that met its goal. The administrator's signed two-part decision follows. Emergency steps cover the archive, the hosted record and surgery center power with times and owners. Sections on outage communication, role cards and testing close the plan.
Where the points sit in the HI575 Unit 9 rubric
Contingency plans are usually graded on soundness of the criticality analysis, alignment of backup design with objectives, evidence from testing, usability of emergency procedures and completeness. Testing evidence often carries the most weight: graders reward a real restore result, especially when the plan acknowledges a shortfall and records a decision. Criticality earns credit when objectives follow from business impact. Emergency procedures are judged on whether staff could act on them under pressure. Role cards and communication plans add points. Accurate citations of the contingency standard round out the grade. Plans that report only successful backups, or set objectives without explaining them, tend to lose points. A testing schedule that names both a restore test and a tabletop exercise is usually expected at this level.
HI575 Unit 9 help: mistakes that cost points
A frequent reason these plans are returned is objectives copied from vendor marketing rather than derived from what the organization needs. Another is reporting that backups completed without testing a restore. Some students hide a failed test, which graders usually notice. Emergency procedures written as descriptions rather than decisions are hard to use. Communication during an outage is often forgotten, especially when email is the system that failed. If your scenario centers on a different critical system, perhaps a pharmacy dispensing cabinet or a lab interface, name it and its downtime limit, and the plan will be rebuilt around that system. Role cards are also frequently left out, though they are what staff actually reach for during the first hour of an outage.
Get an HI575 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Your Unit 9 scenario will have its own systems and its own worst morning. Send that scenario with the instructions and rubric, and within 24-48h a first sample follows at no charge, with recovery objectives derived from what actually stops in that setting and role cards for the staff it names. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HI575 papers and MS in Health Informatics samples
- HI575 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- HI575 Unit 2: Data Inventory
- HI575 Unit 3: Threat and Vulnerability Analysis
- HI575 Unit 4: Risk Analysis Matrix
- HI575 Unit 5: Access Control Policy
- HI575 Unit 6: Technical Safeguards Brief
- HI575 Unit 7: Incident Response Plan
- HI575 Unit 8: Seminar Reflection
- HI575 Unit 10: Security Risk Assessment Report
- HI570 Unit 9: Policy Revision
- HI560 Unit 9: Executive Summary
- HI501 Unit 9: Seminar Reflection
- HI555 Unit 9: Revenue Integrity Plan
HI575 Unit 9 questions, answered
What separates a recovery time objective from a recovery point objective?
The recovery time objective is how long a system can be down before the harm becomes unacceptable; the recovery point objective is how much recent data can be lost, measured back from the failure. The example sets both per system from the criticality table. Confusing them is common, since a nightly backup fixes the second figure and says nothing about the first.
Does the plan need an actual restore test?
Most scenarios cannot supply a live test, so the example reports a composite result and labels it as such. What graders look for is the logic: an objective, a test designed to measure against it, a result, and a decision when the result falls short. A plan that names the test and its schedule, even without a result, is stronger than one assuming backups restore.
Which parts of the contingency plan standard should appear?
The Security Rule's contingency standard covers a data backup plan, disaster recovery, emergency mode operation, testing and revision, and an analysis of which applications and data are most critical. The example includes all five, ordered so criticality comes first. Many prompts name only some of them, and the rubric decides how much space each one deserves.
Where can I find a free HI575 Unit 9 sample paper?
You can read the full Unit 9 plan here, including eleven ranked systems, a missed restore test and the signed decision that followed.
Why test a restore instead of just checking that backups completed?
A backup can finish every night and still take far longer to restore than the practice can tolerate. Only a restore test shows whether recovery meets its objective.