Healthcare being a complex and continuously evolving industry, it faces a huge loss when it comes to disasters whether man made or natural. Hospitals and healthcare institutions need to be more vigilant and alert in disaster management and preparedness. Healthcare industries knows the importance of having an emergency response plan in order to rapidly respond to disasters.
Patients’ lives come first and as a priority, the many departments in the hospitals need to have their IT systems up and running regardless of a situation or disaster. Having a non-functional operation in a hospital could render the hospital useless to the patients that entrust them and might face shut down of the institution.
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During a disaster, the hospital has to continue with normal business operations and attend to the patients without much interference. Patients and staff should be kept safe hence the process of business continuity planning which creates a remedy should a disaster occur. This will lead to changes on how the organization operates. Some aspects like business impact analysis, business continuity planning, disaster recovery and testing should be reviewed and put in place. Testing of business continuity and disaster recovery plan should be conducted annually to expose loop holes or incomplete procedures that needs to be strengthened and updated.
A well-equipped command center should be put in place with functioning utilities as a measure of risk prevention strategy. Most healthcare organization overlook some areas where creating business continuity disaster recovery plans. Roles should be clearly defined on who takes the lead command on the overall disaster recovery team. The lead command should oversee and cover important areas on media and communication, resource and supplies and workforce. Having an annual or biweekly drill or stimulation exercises will help the organization prepare better for various disaster and scenarios.
Reference
Gerard, S. & Malarkey, R. (N.d). Healthcare Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery— No Longer an Afterthought in Today’s World. https://ahia.org/getattachment/news/White-Papers/AHIA-Crowe-Whitepaper.pdf/?lang=en-US
