Electronic Health Records

EHR Downtime

EHR Downtime: What to Do When an IT Disaster Strikes

March 27, 2013 - There are six words you never want to have to say to a frazzled patient who made time in her busy day to squeeze in a check-up at your office: “I’m sorry, our system is down.”  You have patients back to back all day, and you can’t access their appointment schedules, their lab results, or their medical records.  You’ve spent months training your staff...

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EHR systems unavailability for hospitals and physicians represents a  potential patient safety hazard that directly affects patient care. In an event of EHR downtime risks include an increased risk of medication errors, unavailability of images,and canceled procedures. It is crucual that healthacre systems have the proper EHR downtime procedures and policies in place to avoid these risks.

Examples of EHR Downtime

Sutter clinicians deal with unplanned downtime with Epic EHR

EHR Downtime Results from Ransomware Attacks at CA, IN Hospitals

 

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System-wide Epic EHR Downtime Affects 24 Sutter Health Hospitals

by Kate Monica

Sutter Health is in a period of EHR downtime affecting its Epic EHR and all internal communications across its 24 hospitals, according to The Press Democrat.  The system-wide network outage occurred at about 10:30 PM on May 14. The activation...

Allina Health Recovers From System-Wide Stint of EHR Downtime

by Kate Monica

Minnesota’s Allina Health has successfully recovered from a period of EHR downtime that compromised its Epic EHR system on April 4, according to a report from CBS Minnesota. The health system’s computer network went down on Wednesday...

Allscripts Recovering From EHR Downtime After Ransomware Attack

by Kate Monica

Allscripts is still working to fully recover from a period of EHR downtime brought on by a ransomware attack targeting its cloud-based EHR and electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) systems less than a week ago. The ransomware...

Jones Memorial Recovers From EHR Downtime Due to Cyberattack

by Kate Monica

Jones Memorial Hospital (JMH) officials recently announced its systems are back online after a period of EHR downtime lasting about two weeks. A cyberattack at the Wellsville hospital forced staff to temporarily revert to manually entering patient...

Henry Ford Health System Recovers From EHR Downtime Episode

by Kate Monica

Henry Ford Health System in Michigan recently resolved a power outage that resulted in a period of EHR downtime and some minor delays in patient care. “All computer applications affected by today’s power issue at our data center are...

Cyberattack Leads to MEDITECH EHR Downtime in Western New York

by Kate Monica

A recent cyberattack has led to EHR downtime approaching one week at Jones Memorial Hospital (JMH) in Wellsville, New York. Patient health records and email have been inaccessible to all providers at the hospital, according to a report by Buffalo...

Virus-related EHR Outage Forces NY Hospital Back to Paper

by Kate Monica

Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) and its long-term care facility at Terrace View have been battling a virus responsible for EHR outage since Sunday afternoon. UPDATE: Some computers have been restored and ECMC is working to bring the entire...

OIG Tackled EHR Contingency Plans, Payments in 2016

by Sara Heath

Late last week, the Office of Inspector General issued its Semiannual Report to Congress, touching on findings from its EHR contingency plan and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program payment audits from earlier this year. The report, which encompasses...

Nearly All Hospitals Have Contingency Plans for EHR Downtime

by Sara Heath

With 59 percent of hospitals experiencing EHR downtime in the past year, the importance of EHR contingency plans comes to the forefront. In a recent report from the Office of the Inspector General, experts explain the need for EHR contingency...

Recent Ransomware Attacks Show Need for EHR Downtime Plans

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

Ransomware attack led heart hospital in Kansas to pay hackers although no instances of EHR downtime are reported, according to Wichita's KWCH. The Kansas Heart Hospital experienced lost access to files last Wednesday evening at 9PM local...

EHR Downtime Results from Ransomware Attacks at CA, IN Hospitals

by Sara Heath

Ransomware attacks have been putting hospital technologies out of commission, pushing some healthcare organizations into EHR downtime. The attacks, which involve viruses infecting hospital files, lock users out of IT systems until they pay a...

MedStar Health Working to Fix Malware-Related EHR Downtime

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

The health IT systems at MedStar Health are not completely back online following the EHR downtime caused by a ransomware attack earlier this week, the health system has revealed. In a series of official updates on its website, the health system...

Ransomware Leads to EHR Downtime at DC-Area Health System

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

UPDATE: Cerner Corporation has commented on the ransomware attack. Many providers in the Capital Beltway found themselves working with paper records as a result of EHR downtime caused by a ransomware virus on the MedStar Health network, according...

EHR Implementation Gaffes Leave Calif. Hospital Cash-Strapped

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

EHR implementation and adoption continue to plague members of the healthcare community in northern California, no matter the make or model of the EHR technology. According to a report in the Contra Costa Times, the Bay Area’s Alameda Health...

Epic EHR outages in force Bay Area docs on to paper records

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

Providers at two John Muir Health campuses in northern California were forced to paper records as a result of intermittent outages of their Epic EHR system on Monday, according to the Contra Costa Times. Joyce Tsai reports that the health system’s...

Yale-New Haven’s Epic EHR experiences temporary glitch

by Jennifer Bresnick

Yale-New Haven Hospital canceled some elective surgeries late last week after its EHR system was affected by an internet connectivity problem, the New Haven Register reports.  From mid-morning until mid-afternoon on Friday, users experienced...

What are the costs of data outages, downtime in healthcare?

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

The last thing a healthcare organization or provider wants to hear after adopting an EHR system is that the system has gone down. But downtime is a reality as no EHR company can provide perfect uptime. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute...

Sutter clinicians deal with unplanned downtime with Epic EHR

by Kyle Murphy, PhD

After a weekend that included an upgrade and limited access to the Epic EHR system, clinicians at Sutter hospitals in Northern California experienced unplanned outages on Aug. 26, according to an announcement by the California Nurses Association....

EHR Downtime: What to Do When an IT Disaster Strikes

by Jennifer Bresnick

There are six words you never want to have to say to a frazzled patient who made time in her busy day to squeeze in a check-up at your office: “I’m sorry, our system is down.”  You have patients back to back all day, and...

Boulder Community back online after lengthy EHR outage

by Jennifer Bresnick

After more than a week of blank computer screens, the Meditech EHR in Boulder Community Hospital of Colorado is back in business.  Citing a major malfunction of the hospital’s main computer servers which also knocked out an off-site backup...

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