Clear Path step · Business · Your industry's rules and risks
Plan how you'll see patients if the systems go dark
Why it matters: Ransomware and outages at a shared vendor can take systems down for days. Practices with a paper fallback keep caring for patients and recover calmer.
On your path if you picked “Healthcare” for “What's your industry?”.
Do it
- Decide which forms and lists you'd need on paper: schedule, allergy and medication lists, contact numbers.
- Print a downtime kit and keep it current.
- Agree how you'll reconcile records once systems return.
- Run a short downtime drill once a year.
Check it worked: You have printed downtime procedures for scheduling, charting, prescribing and billing, and staff have practiced them once.
Simply put
It's like keeping candles and a paper map for a power cut. When systems go dark, a printed downtime kit lets you keep seeing patients, and catching up afterwards is calmer.
In detail
Attacks on a single clearinghouse or EHR vendor can stop practices across the country at once, so the plan needs to work even when your own systems are fine.
Points toward the Long View: care that continues even when a shared vendor goes down.