Epic is the most widely adopted EHR platform in the United States, powering operations at hundreds of major health systems, academic medical centers, and community hospitals. Its reputation for reliability, clinical depth, and integration capabilities is well established.
But Epic is not immune to downtime. Scheduled maintenance windows, network outages, ransomware attacks, and third-party failures can all take Epic offline, sometimes for hours or days. And when Epic goes down, the entire care delivery and administrative infrastructure of a hospital goes with it.
dbtech has worked with Epic hospitals for over four decades. Our Epic EHR integration is specifically designed to keep your hospital running when Epic is unavailable, then get you back into Epic as quickly and accurately as possible when it returns. Here is how it works.
The Reality of Epic Downtime in Large Health Systems
Epic’s architecture is sophisticated, but large health systems face unique downtime risks. Planned upgrades, particularly major version transitions, require extended maintenance windows. Network vulnerabilities at scale can take down entire campuses. Third-party integrations that feed data into or pull data from Epic create dependencies that can fail independently.
Research shows that 96% of hospitals experience at least one unplanned EHR downtime event over a three-year period. For Epic hospitals, those events carry additional operational weight because Epic is often the single source of truth for clinical, financial, and administrative data across the organization.
When Epic is unavailable, the question is not whether your hospital will need a fallback. It is whether that fallback is electronic, controlled, and recoverable, or paper-based, chaotic, and slow.
How dbtech Connects to Epic
dbtech integrates with Epic using HL7, the industry-standard protocol for healthcare data exchange. This bidirectional integration means that patient data flows from Epic into dbtech in real time while Epic is operational. dbtech’s Downtime Solution continuously receives ADT (Admit, Discharge, Transfer) feeds, clinical reports, and patient data, storing it securely in a format that is accessible the moment Epic becomes unavailable.
The integration does not require custom development on the Epic side. dbtech works within the existing HL7 infrastructure that most Epic hospitals already have in place. Implementation timelines are typically measured in weeks, not months.
What dbtech Does During Epic Downtime
Patient Data Access
The most immediate need during an Epic downtime is access to patient information: who is on each unit, what medications are due, what allergies are flagged, and what orders are pending. dbtech’s downtime workstations, deployed throughout the facility, provide secure, real-time access to all of this information even when Epic is completely offline.
Access requires discrete login credentials, creating an audit trail that satisfies HIPAA access control requirements. The data available includes census reports, medication administration records, clinical documentation, and critical care access reports, configured according to each department’s needs.
New Patient Registration
Patients do not stop arriving because Epic is down. dbtech’s patient registration tools operate independently of Epic during a downtime event. Registration staff can pull patient history from previous encounters, create new encounters electronically, assign temporary encounter numbers from a pre-configured bank, and print barcoded wristbands, labels, and consent forms on demand.
All registration data captured during the downtime event is automatically exported back to Epic via outbound HL7 when the system returns. No manual re-entry. No paper to reconcile.
Electronic Forms and Clinical Documentation
dbtech’s eForms solution integrates with Epic to pre-populate forms with patient data from previous encounters. During downtime, nurses and clinical staff can complete forms electronically, capture eSignatures, and document care assessments, all without paper. Completed forms are stored securely and exported back to Epic as part of the recovery process.
This capability is particularly valuable for Epic hospitals that have invested in digital documentation workflows. Rather than reverting to paper during a downtime event, clinical staff continue using a structured electronic workflow that maintains documentation quality and compliance.
Downtime Workstations for Full Offline Operation
For extended outages or full network failures, dbtech provides dedicated downtime workstations that operate independently of the hospital network. These workstations are pre-loaded with current patient data and can function entirely offline, ensuring that even a catastrophic network failure does not eliminate access to critical patient information.
Workstations are deployed in predefined areas based on clinical workflow requirements, and access is controlled by discrete user credentials, not shared passwords or open access.
How dbtech Gets You Back Into Epic Fast
The recovery phase after an Epic downtime event is where poorly prepared organizations spend the most time. Manually transcribing paper records back into Epic is slow, error-prone, and expensive. For large health systems where hundreds of patients may have been managed during an extended outage, the reconciliation backlog can span days.
dbtech’s Rapid Recovery feature eliminates this problem. Once Epic is restored, dbtech automatically transmits all data captured during the downtime event back into Epic via outbound HL7. Registration records, forms data, clinical documentation, and scanned images are all transferred instantaneously. The recovery process that would take days manually is completed in hours, sometimes minutes. Learn more in our overview of EHR downtime recovery.
dbtech vs. Paper-Based Epic Downtime Procedures
Many Epic hospitals still rely on paper-based downtime procedures as their primary fallback. The comparison is significant:
- Paper forms are printed in advance and may be outdated by the time they are used; dbtech data is continuously updated
- Paper records are difficult to secure and can be accessed without accountability; dbtech requires individual login credentials
- Handwritten records must be manually re-entered into Epic after recovery; dbtech transfers data automatically
- Paper forms are frequently lost or incomplete; dbtech creates a structured, recoverable record
- Paper-based recovery can take days; dbtech Rapid Recovery completes in hours
Getting Started With the dbtech Epic Integration
If your organization uses Epic and does not yet have a dedicated downtime solution, the time to act is before the next outage. dbtech offers a complimentary Downtime Audit Assessment that reviews your current preparedness, identifies gaps, and provides a roadmap for improving your downtime posture.
You can also visit our Epic EHR integrations page for a full overview of how dbtech extends and protects your Epic environment, or schedule a demo to see the integration in action.
Integrate dbtech and EPIC
Epic is a world-class EHR platform. But world-class tools still fail, and the organizations that navigate those failures best are the ones that planned for them. dbtech’s Epic integration gives your hospital a reliable, electronic downtime solution that keeps care moving during an outage and gets data back into Epic accurately when systems return.
After 40+ years working with Epic, Cerner, and MEDITECH hospitals, dbtech brings the integration experience and clinical workflow depth that healthcare organizations need from a downtime partner. Reach out today to start the conversation.