CPAS CPAS Troubleshooting & System Maintenance 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: How frequently should PACS hard drive SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status be reviewed as part of preventive maintenance?
- Once every five years
- Monthly or more frequently (Correct answer)
- Only after a physical drive failure occurs
- Once per decade
Correct answer: Monthly or more frequently
Monthly SMART status checks allow administrators to detect early warning signs of drive degradation and schedule replacements before an unplanned failure causes data loss.
Question 2: What preventive maintenance activity most directly reduces the risk of security breaches in a PACS environment?
- Rerouting network cables to improve aesthetics
- Cleaning workstation keyboards and mice
- Applying vendor-issued security patches and OS updates on a regular schedule (Correct answer)
- Replacing monitor mounting arms
Correct answer: Applying vendor-issued security patches and OS updates on a regular schedule
Regularly applying security patches closes known vulnerabilities in PACS software and underlying operating systems before they can be exploited by attackers.
Question 3: Why are periodic PACS database integrity checks an important component of routine system maintenance?
- To enhance image color saturation on diagnostic displays
- To detect and repair index corruption, orphaned image references, and broken table relationships (Correct answer)
- To physically increase the storage array capacity
- To speed up end-user workstation login times
Correct answer: To detect and repair index corruption, orphaned image references, and broken table relationships
Database integrity checks identify corrupted indexes, orphaned records, and referential integrity errors that can cause image retrieval failures or silent data loss if left unaddressed.
Question 4: What is the primary reason for testing PACS UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) systems on a scheduled maintenance basis?
- To verify network throughput remains stable during simulated power events
- To confirm the UPS batteries can sustain the system load long enough for an orderly shutdown during a real outage (Correct answer)
- To measure image compression efficiency during reduced power
- To benchmark workstation login performance
Correct answer: To confirm the UPS batteries can sustain the system load long enough for an orderly shutdown during a real outage
UPS batteries degrade over time; periodic load testing confirms the battery still has sufficient capacity to support PACS through a controlled shutdown when power actually fails.
Question 5: What administrative documentation should be updated immediately after completing any PACS configuration change?
- The hospital social media posting policy
- System configuration records and change logs reflecting what was changed, when, and by whom (Correct answer)
- Employee vacation and PTO schedules
- Building HVAC maintenance records
Correct answer: System configuration records and change logs reflecting what was changed, when, and by whom
Current configuration records ensure that any future troubleshooting, audits, or disaster recovery effort starts from an accurate baseline of how the system is actually configured.
Question 6: During scheduled PACS maintenance, which task validates that backup procedures will actually work before a real disaster occurs?
- Updating workstation screen saver timeout settings
- Performing test restores from backups to verify completeness and recoverability (Correct answer)
- Changing the user interface color theme
- Inventorying spare keyboards and mice
Correct answer: Performing test restores from backups to verify completeness and recoverability
An untested backup is an unreliable backup; regular test restores confirm that data is complete, uncorrupted, and restorable within the organization's recovery time objectives.
CPAS CPAS Troubleshooting & System Maintenance 2
How frequently should PACS hard drive SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status be reviewed as part of preventive maintenance?