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Healthcare leaders must ensure their critical systems are prepared for natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. However, for rural and community hospitals, meeting this challenge is significantly more complex.
In this article, we explore how hosted Electronic Health Record (EHR) services can strengthen your facility's ability to provide uninterrupted care to the community, regardless of what mother nature throws your way.
A recent study published in Nature Communications analyzed the compound effects of natural disasters and pandemics on healthcare systems and found an imminent need for resilient healthcare systems capable of handling simultaneous challenges posed by natural disasters and emerging viruses.
A reliable and up-to-date disaster preparedness plan can safeguard patient information and facility operations, but it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on without redundant systems in place to protect health IT infrastructure during disasters.
Research and practical experiences have demonstrated the significant benefits of hosted EHR solutions in improving disaster preparedness for rural hospitals.
In an article by Health IT Buzz, the author highlights how the use of EHRs, which are often remotely backed up, has significantly improved the healthcare system's capacity to respond to emergencies quickly, ensuring patient records remain accessible and secure.
Hosted EHR systems offer several advantages that enhance the resilience and effectiveness of healthcare services during natural disasters:
Customization: Each organization is unique, which means a hosted service provider can tailor to the specific needs of your hospital. If downtime does occur, this flexibility can help get your hospital back up and running faster.
Affordability: Hosted solutions plans often feature 24/7 monitoring and management, 365 days a year. This helps make the expense of disaster recovery preparedness more affordable while simultaneously fortifying your IT system’s overall resilience.
Compliance: Recovering from extended outages or disasters within an acceptable time frame is required to avoid costly penalties and maintain compliance.
Simplicity: Moving software to an EHR host means your internal IT teams will no longer spend hours patching, updating, and upgrading servers. During a disaster, local IT staff can make better use of their time by supporting clinicians with more freedom and flexibility.
MEDHOST Direct helps hospitals avoid upfront hardware capital expenses by providing cost-effective solutions that are flexible enough to grow and adjust with your facility.
Download our case study to see how MEDHOST Direct enabled a rural Wyoming hospital to focus more energy on providing an exceptional patient experience and reducing costs.
To learn more, reach out to us at inquiries@medhost.com or call 1.800.383.6278.
