Disaster (fire, vandalism, water) happen to patient records?

Please rephrase: What exactly is your question? Patient records can obviously be damaged by all of the above causes.

Records are secure.: Most records are stored electronically and backed up to central locations, so that in the setting of fire or water damage, patient records are very safe. In most cases, however, there's nothing to worry about; most patients know the important information about themselves, such as serious conditions and allergies. It's a good idea to keep a short medical history in your wallet just in case.

Digital age: These days most medical records are stored electronically. They are backed up elsewhere also. Peace and good health.

Back up procedures: It depends on what back up procedures are available. This is something you can discuss with your physician . Be certain you get copies of your own records after every visit, and make your own file. This is because you may have records from various physicians .

Depends: In case of disaster, the patient records might be lost if they are on paper or stored on a computer server. Nowadays, more and more doctors offices have "cloud based" EMRs (electronic med records) so even if a clinic were to be destroyed, the records are safe. It's a good idea to keep your own set of "records" in case of disaster (meds, important medical information) that you can take with you.

New technology: Patient records have been digitalized into computer servers that mostly back up to outside the hospital areas such as the "cloud". Computerization has been the bane of the modern doctors' existence, but in this case works well for a disaster.

Patient records: Most places now have electronic health records (including images) that may be saved online

Being able to: retain and preserve medical records when disaster hits it a major advantage of electronic medical records. Many hospitals have special protections (fire proofing, etc) in the records room, but often older records ARE destroyed in a disaster situation. However, current records, created electronically, live in a secure cloud and, with proper permissions, can be retrieved.

See answer: If the records are computerized and backed up with the back up off site then the records are secure. If not computerized it's likely the paper charts would be destroyed.

This was an issue!: As we modernize world-wide, this is less likely since there are electronic storage formats with back-up. This prevents physical destruction but introduces hacking. But encryption tries to stay ahead of that. Don't worry too much!

Patient records: When disasters happen doctors office's and hospitals are not immune to them. Patient's records have been lost, burned in fires or just stolen on many occasions. This is one of the reasons that doctors are being urged to move to electronic medical records that are stored off site. Then even if the office goes under, your records are safe.