A BCP (business continuity plan) is a plan for not stopping medical care in disasters. If the EHR becomes unusable, care stalls badly. This article organizes hospital BCP and EHR disaster readiness from the angles of data protection and care continuity.
How disasters affect care
If a power outage stops the server, charts cannot be viewed; if a disaster damages on-site equipment, the data itself may be lost. Continuing care requires preparation on both the system and information fronts.
Care stalls if power, network, or terminals is missing, so it is important to anticipate multiple elements together.
Preparations on the EHR side
EHR disaster readiness pairs preparation to not lose data with preparation to recover quickly after a stoppage. Concretely, measures like the following are central.
- Data backups at multiple sites, including remote locations
- Securing power against outages and documenting recovery procedures
Operational plans during a system halt
However much you prepare, situations where the system is temporarily unusable can occur. Building into the BCP the procedure to switch to paper during that time, and the flow to reflect data after recovery, keeps confusion to a minimum.
Raising resilience with cloud
A setup concentrated on on-site servers shows its weakness when that site is hit. Entrusting data to a cloud foundation so it can be viewed and recovered from remote locations greatly raises resilience in disasters.
Summary
Hospital BCP and EHR disaster readiness hinge on balancing data protection with care continuity. After arranging backups, power, and operational plans, using a cloud foundation like Sakigake Platform can further raise resilience in disasters.
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