Relying on "old school" methods during a ransomware attack

by Brian Ward

When your facility can’t access its medical records, operate its equipment, and properly care for patients, that’s not a problem—it’s an emergency, said Kelly Proctor, CHFM, CHSP, CHOP, director of operations for DNV GL Healthcare, during DNV GL’s 2020 Virtual Conference in October. When your systems go down, your facility needs to be ready to switch back to paper records and runners in an instant.

Your emergency team should have plans in place on how to keep the hospital running, even if EMRs and electronic communication systems are down. To start, that includes creating, testing, and drilling a paper record policy that can be used when locked out of the EMR. Plus, you should have a process for making sure the information gathered on those emergency paper records gets onto the EMR once the system is restored.

When your facility can’t access its medical records, operate its equipment, and properly care for patients, that’s not a problem—it’s an emergency, said Kelly Proctor, CHFM, CHSP, CHOP, director of operations for DNV GL Healthcare, during DNV GL’s 2020 Virtual Conference in October. When your systems go down, your facility needs to be ready to switch back to paper records and runners in an instant.