dbtech works alongside your EHR’s native downtime mode and fills in the significant gaps it leaves behind.
This is one of the most common questions we hear from organizations evaluating their downtime preparedness, and it’s a fair one. Epic, Cerner, MEDITECH, and other major EHR platforms do have some form of native downtime functionality built in. So the natural question is: why do you need something more?
The answer comes down to what native downtime modes are actually designed to do, and what they’re not.
What Native EHR Downtime Modes Do
Your EHR vendor’s built-in downtime capabilities are primarily designed to protect against scheduled maintenance windows. They typically allow a read-only snapshot of patient data to remain temporarily accessible when the system goes offline for a planned upgrade or maintenance event. In that specific, controlled scenario, they work reasonably well.
Where Native Downtime Falls Short
The problem is that most downtime events aren’t planned, controlled maintenance windows. They’re ransomware attacks, network outages, hardware failures, or third-party infrastructure problems, and those are exactly the scenarios where native EHR downtime modes struggle most.
Read-only access isn’t enough. A native EHR downtime mode typically gives staff the ability to view existing patient data, but not to register new patients, capture new clinical documentation, complete consent forms, or print wristbands and labels. In a working clinical environment, read-only access means operations grind to a halt.
It depends on the same infrastructure that failed. If your network is down or your servers are compromised, the EHR’s downtime functionality may be inaccessible for the same reason the primary system is. dbtech’s downtime workstations are standalone, isolated devices that operate independently of the main network, specifically because the system was built with the assumption that the underlying infrastructure could be the problem.
No electronic registration or recovery. Native downtime modes don’t provide a mechanism to electronically register new encounters, assign downtime medical record numbers, or collect and export data back into the EHR after recovery. That means organizations relying on native downtime alone often fall back on paper during the outage and spend hours on manual re-entry afterward.
What dbtech Adds on Top
dbtech’s Downtime Solution is designed to pick up where native EHR downtime functionality ends. That includes new patient registration using your facility’s downtime encounter numbers, access to continuously updated patient census and history, eForms and electronic signature capture so clinical workflows continue without paper, barcoded wristbands and labels printed directly from the workstation, and rapid EHR recovery where all data collected during the outage is pushed back electronically via HL7 after the system comes back online.
The Right Way to Think About It
Your EHR vendor’s native downtime mode is like the spare tire in your trunk. It’s there, it’s better than nothing, and it might get you through a very short controlled situation. dbtech is the full roadside assistance plan: it handles the scenarios where the spare tire isn’t enough, and it gets you back on the road faster when something serious happens.
The two aren’t in conflict. dbtech complements what your EHR vendor provides and ensures your organization is covered for the full range of downtime scenarios, not just the planned ones.
Want to understand how your current setup would hold up during an unplanned outage? Start with a free Downtime Audit and our team will walk through the gaps with you.