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FAQ Friday: What Happens to Data Collected in dbtech When the EHR Comes Back Online?
What Happens to Data Collected in dbtech When the EHR Comes Back Online? This question gets to the heart of what separates a real downtime solution from a simple backup. The ability to continue registering patients and documenting care during an outage only delivers full value if that data flows cleanly back into the EHR […]
July 10, 2026
Why EHR Downtime Is Getting More Frequent and What Healthcare Organizations Can Do About It
A decade ago, most hospital IT teams treated EHR downtime as an infrequent event, something that happened a few times a year during planned maintenance windows or the occasional unexpected server failure. The assumption was that downtime was manageable because it was rare. That assumption no longer reflects the reality of the current operating environment. […]
July 6, 2026
Why Patient Safety and Downtime Preparedness Are the Same Conversation
Patient safety in healthcare is typically framed around clinical practices: medication administration protocols, surgical checklists, fall prevention programs, infection control procedures. These are the domains where errors happen and where quality improvement efforts are concentrated. What rarely appears on the patient safety agenda, despite evidence that it belongs there, is EHR downtime preparedness. The framing […]
How to Run a Downtime Drill That Actually Tests Your Real Gaps
Most healthcare organizations that run downtime drills come away feeling reasonably good about their preparedness. The workstations came on. Staff accessed the system. The census was visible. The drill ended, the EHR came back online, and the team moved on. The problem is that most downtime drills are designed to demonstrate that the technology works, […]
How State Health Department Surveys Evaluate Downtime Preparedness
Most healthcare organizations think about downtime preparedness in the context of Joint Commission accreditation. The Joint Commission is visible, its standards are well documented, and the accreditation survey is a known event that organizations prepare for explicitly. What gets less attention is the parallel world of state health department surveys, which operate on their own […]
How Downtime Disrupts the OR and What Surgical Teams Need in a Backup Plan
The operating room is one of the most controlled environments in a hospital. Every instrument is counted. Every step in the surgical workflow is sequenced and verified. The margin for error is extraordinarily thin. When an EHR goes offline during or immediately before a surgical case, that controlled environment does not disappear, but the information […]
After the Outage: A Step-by-Step Guide to Reconciling Downtime Data Back Into the EHR
The moment the EHR comes back online after a downtime event, most clinical and administrative staff experience a wave of relief. The system is back. The crisis is over. In reality, the work of managing the downtime event is only partially complete. The documentation, registrations, forms, and clinical data collected during the outage period now […]
How to Use a Downtime Audit to Prepare for Accreditation
Accreditation preparation in healthcare is a process of making sure the organization can demonstrate what it claims to be doing. For most clinical and operational programs, that means reviewing policies, confirming that procedures match what is written, and ensuring that staff can articulate what they would do in a given scenario. Downtime preparedness is no […]
How IT Directors Can Build a Downtime Preparedness Program That Actually Sticks
Most healthcare IT directors have some version of a downtime program. There are workstations somewhere. There is a policy document in the system. Someone ran a drill at some point. The challenge is not starting a downtime preparedness program. The challenge is building one that actually sticks, one that remains current, tested, and functional over […]
How EHR Migration Affects Your Downtime Readiness and What to Do About It
EHR migrations are among the most complex and highest-risk projects a healthcare organization undertakes. The planning cycles are long, the resource demands are significant, and the potential for disruption during go-live is well understood. What is less frequently discussed is how an EHR migration affects downtime readiness, not just during the go-live window but throughout […]
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