Backup for Hospitals & specialist clinics

Why Hospitals & specialist clinics are extra vulnerable to data loss

What makes hospitals & specialist clinics data a high-value target — and what happens when it's gone

Hospitals & specialist clinics store some of the most sensitive data in their field — including electronic patient records (epd) | diagnostic images (dicom) | lab results. This combination of confidential records, long statutory retention obligations, and day-to-day reliance on software like HiX makes them a prime target for cybercriminals.

Ransomware groups increasingly target organisations that cannot afford downtime — and hospitals & specialist clinics fit that profile exactly. A firm that loses access to its electronic patient records (epd) cannot operate. Deadlines are missed, regulatory obligations are breached, and clients lose trust. Under NEN 7510, data must be retained for 15 years — meaning a data loss event does not just disrupt operations today, it creates legal liability that extends years into the future.

The risk is not abstract. Patient safety risk from data unavailability, ransomware on clinical systems, loss of diagnostic images is the leading threat for this sector. Files with characteristics like very large dicom image files | highly sensitive medical records are difficult or impossible to reconstruct from memory once lost. Every day without a verified, offsite backup is a day of unnecessary exposure.

• Hospitals & specialist clinics
• Electronic patient records (EPD)
• NEN 7510

The misconception that costs many hospitals & specialist clinics dearly

"Our EPD system has built-in redundancy — we don't need a separate backup strategy."

It is easy to understand why many hospitals & specialist clinics believe this. HiX is marketed as a professional-grade platform, and vendors naturally emphasise uptime and reliability. But there is a critical difference between redundancy and recovery. A system can be highly available and still offer you zero protection the moment ransomware encrypts your files or an administrator accidentally deletes a directory.

Synchronisation tools — including those built into HiX — propagate changes in near real-time. When ransomware encrypts a file, that encrypted version immediately overwrites your 'backed up' copy. By the time the attack is discovered, every sync destination contains the same unusable data. This is not a backup. It is a perfectly synchronised disaster.

The practical consequence: without an independent, immutable backup, hospitals & specialist clinics facing a ransomware attack have two options — pay the ransom or start over. Neither is acceptable when NEN 7510 requires you to demonstrate full data integrity to regulators.

What do I need to back up if I use HiX?

The data hospitals & specialist clinics typically overlook when using HiX

HiX manages your day-to-day workflow, but its built-in data protection typically covers only what happens within the application itself. It does not automatically back up your entire data environment — and there are several categories of data that fall outside its scope entirely.

For hospitals & specialist clinics using HiX, the following should be included in any proper backup: electronic patient records (epd), diagnostic images (dicom), lab results, prescription histories. If you also use Epic, any data in those systems must be covered separately.

Pay particular attention to very large dicom image files | highly sensitive medical records. These file types are either difficult to reconstruct or subject to strict legal retention requirements. A backup strategy that does not explicitly cover them is incomplete — and potentially non-compliant.

• Hospitals & specialist clinics
• Electronic patient records (EPD)
• HiX

What a proper backup actually does

The 3-2-1 rule — and why it matters for hospitals & specialist clinics

The 3-2-1 rule is the baseline standard for data resilience: keep at least 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of storage media, with 1 copy stored offsite. For hospitals & specialist clinics, this is not just best practice — it is increasingly a regulatory expectation under frameworks like NEN 7510.

In practice: your primary production data counts as copy 1. A local backup (on a NAS or secondary server) is copy 2, enabling fast recovery without waiting for a cloud download. Copy 3 is stored in an offsite data centre — physically and logically separated from your main environment, so a fire, flood, or ransomware attack cannot reach all three copies simultaneously.

Mindtime extends this to a 4-copy model, with an additional snapshot stored in a second Dutch data centre. For hospitals & specialist clinics managing electronic patient records (epd), this means your data is always recoverable — from a clean, pre-attack restore point — regardless of what happens on-site.

How do hospitals & specialist clinics protect themselves against ransomware?

Specific measures for hospitals & specialist clinics — beyond antivirus

Ransomware attacks on hospitals & specialist clinics typically follow a predictable pattern: initial access via a phishing email or compromised credential, lateral movement to identify high-value data, and then encryption of everything — including network shares and connected backup drives.

The single most effective defensive measure is an immutable offsite backup — one that ransomware cannot reach. Beyond backup, hospitals & specialist clinics should implement: multi-factor authentication on all systems (particularly HiX), regular software updates and patch management, network segmentation to limit lateral movement, and staff awareness training on phishing recognitions.

Critically, a backup is only useful if it has been tested. Many organisations discover during a recovery that their backup is incomplete, out of date, or corrupted. Mindtime performs automated integrity checks on every backup and alerts you if a backup fails — so you know your data is recoverable before you need it, not during a crisis.

How do I create a backup if I use HiX?

A practical guide for hospitals & specialist clinics using HiX

Setting up a proper backup for hospitals & specialist clinics using HiX (and Epic if applicable) involves more than activating the export function in your software. Here is the practical approach:

First, identify all data that must be retained under NEN 7510 — including electronic patient records (epd) | diagnostic images (dicom) | lab results. Map every location where this data lives: within HiX, on local drives, on shared network folders, and in any integrated third-party tools.

Second, configure Mindtime's agent on each endpoint and server that holds hospitals & specialist clinics data. The agent performs incremental backups continuously, so you are never more than a few minutes behind your last recovery point. Backup frequency, retention periods, and encryption settings are all configured to meet your specific regulatory requirements.

Third, run a test restore within the first week. Verify that electronic patient records (epd) and other critical data types can be recovered fully and within your acceptable downtime window. Document the process so your team knows exactly what to do if an incident occurs.

Data retention and compliance obligations for hospitals & specialist clinics

NEN 7510 and what it means for your backup strategy

Hospitals & specialist clinics operate under some of the most specific data retention obligations in their field. The primary framework is NEN 7510, which sets clear requirements for how long electronic patient records (epd) must be kept, in what format, and with what level of accessibility.

Key retention requirements for hospitals & specialist clinics:

— 15 years (WGBO)

— 20 years for specific patient groups

— Permanent for childhood records

Beyond retention duration, these regulations also require that data remains accessible and verifiable throughout the retention period. A backup that cannot be searched, exported, or audited does not satisfy the requirement. Mindtime's backup platform includes point-in-time restore, meaning you can retrieve any version of a file at any point within the retention window — exactly what regulators require during an audit.

Certification under NEN 7510 demonstrates that your data protection processes meet a recognised standard — which regulators and clients increasingly expect.

• Hospitals & specialist clinics
• NEN 7510
• NEN 7510

Five steps to get this sorted

A practical checklist for hospitals & specialist clinics implementing a proper backup strategy

Your questions answered

Frequently asked questions about backup for hospitals & specialist clinics