Availability

Availability is defined as the ability to access data when it is needed (Herzig, 2013). Access to data can be affected with simple power outages, application issues, a network related issues, hacker attack, system failure or other issues. Additionally when access to data are violated by unauthorized access, report need to be done to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services as required by section 13402(e)(4) of the HITECH Act. Understanding that risk is an important to ensure data availability. Therefore, to maintain availability, system or media used to store data has to be reliable to avoid or minimize system failure. Additionally, backup is necessary to restore lost data in case of intentional or unintentional data loss. System security is another important factor that help data availability and prevent the harmful effect of a system hack.

Reference:

Implementing Information Security in Healthcare: Building a Security Program (2013-02-26). HIMSS. Kindle Edition.