Business Continuance White Paper: What are You Willing to Risk?

Insurance against Downtime in the World of Advanced EMR

The stage is already set for advanced use of online clinical systems; many hospitals are already using or implementing Electronic Medication Administration Records (EMARs), online documentation in nursing and, in some stage of implementation, Provider Order Management. As the details of the economic stimulus package that relate to healthcare IT are clarified, healthcare organizations will be encouraged to more aggressively implement and use these systems.

Although this advanced use of technology appeals to physicians, nurses and ultimately the patients, hospitals are now dependent on critical technology such as health care information systems (HCIS) for patient diagnosis and treatment, making it intolerable when systems become unavailable during a network failure or unplanned downtime. Physicians specify downtime as their top concern when contemplating the adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) technology, as unplanned downtime has serious financial consequences due to the halt in operations and can negatively impact the hospital’s ability to provide quality care. It is important for healthcare organizations to ensure that they have the ability to access critical patient information 24/7 and maintain continued operations and uninterrupted patient care.

While some downtime can result from weather or natural disasters, most downtime occurs because of security breaches, hardware or application failures and human errors. What comes as a real surprise is that planned downtime caused by routine backups, system upgrades and other activities planned by the IT department creates more than 70-90 percent of system interruptions. Regardless of whether it is planned or unplanned, downtime is inevitable and can be very costly to your organization.

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