In the midst of disaster, hospitals often serve as a refuge, a place of comfort for those in need of care or shelter. But even hospitals aren’t immune to chaos, as electronic health record systems, network connections and even whole power grids can be rendered useless in the blink of an eye.
Response to and recovery from IT outages are critical, as UC Irvine Health’s Charles Podesta knows all too well. Prior to accepting a role as chief information officer for the Orange, California, health system in September 2014, he served for five years in the same capacity for University of (Burlington) Vermont Medical Center (then known as Fletcher Allen Health Care). A little more than one year into his tenure—and roughly one month after completing implementation of a brand new electronic health record system—the 562-bed hospital suffered a freak power outage that left its EHR system out of commission for nearly half a day.
A Domino Effect
“It started with a squirrel getting blown up on a transformer,” Podesta recalls. “It was on a wire, which knocked out a transformer, which sent a surge to the system, and actually blew out some of our electrical and mechanical equipment.”
From there, the situation only got worse. The uninterruptible power supply did not kick in. Then the failover software didn’t activate.
“I remember those events happening and just shaking my head, [thinking] ‘how could all those things occur?'” Podesta says.
Maintaining Care Quality
The one thing that did go right during the outage, according to Podesta, was business continuity. To maintain high quality of patient care, staffers reverted back to using paper records during the outage.
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