Graham County hospital addresses fire‑marshal finding, HIPAA review and elevator repair

Graham County staff told the commission that a recent state fire‑marshal inspection raised a safety concern about the proximity of the hospital’s air‑gas tank to the facility generator and that staff are evaluating options to address the finding. “The air gas tank’s been there since ’62,” Speaker 1 said, and the county is considering either building a firewall or moving the generator or tank to resolve the violation.

Speaker 1 said county staff are working with an architecture group to determine whether a firewall can be accommodated in the available footprint. “There’s a question right now whether the footprint in that space is big enough for a firewall,” Speaker 1 said, adding that the county hopes a firewall would “satisfy their concern.”

On patient‑data protections, Speaker 1 described an ongoing HIPAA security‑risk assessment for the county’s electronic health records. The assessment has involved “about 5 or 6 three‑hour different sessions” to review EHR safeguards, Speaker 1 said, and is being done both to meet HIPAA requirements and to support interoperability work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Speaker 1 also reported that elevator repair work is underway and that county staff are following up on property‑insurance questions with a contact named Conradi. The update included no timeline for final resolution of the fire‑marshal finding; Speaker 1 said staff will “work through it” and report back.

Next steps: staff will continue to evaluate whether to build a firewall or relocate equipment and will return with more details when available.