While healthcare has always been a business of crisis management, preparation has never been more important – especially because today’s threats can take new forms, like pandemic uncertainty, increasingly dangerous and frequent cyber threats, and more man-made and natural disasters.
With strong governance and a commitment to planning, health systems can effectively prepare for extended down time and ensure business continuity.
Three Key Steps for Business Continuity
- Conduct a crisis impact analysis, which is foundational to contingency and mitigation planning. The analysis should identify critical functions to remain operational, measure the financial and operational impacts on the organization, and pinpoint areas of inter-dependency to prioritize during recovery.
- Commit the right experts for crisis management and business continuity planning – Leading Health Systems in this space have carved out a dedicated crisis response team (often with experience in disaster management), while recognizing this team must be complemented by a collaborative effort across departments with specific emphasis on IT and operations.
- Run exercises and update plans regularly because successful crisis management and business continuity require playbooks, protocols, and system-wide practice exercises that prepare the entire organization. This includes training modules and exercises to bring to life the plans for current employees – as well as students in medical and nursing school programs – to ensure the workforce is prepared. Procedures should be revisited at least annually to make updates.
While crisis management requires upfront resource investments, progressive Leading Health Systems say that the monetary investment for preparedness is the 'easy' part. The ongoing maintenance, training, and education across a large system is the bigger undertaking.
Strategic Questions to Consider
As Leading Health Systems build out and refine business continuity plans, important questions to address may include:
- Does your organization have clearly defined roles and ownership of business continuity and crisis management protocols?
- Has your organization had conversations with IT partners on their cybersecurity protocols and support during a system outage?
- How is your organization educating employees on how to detect potential cyber threats?
Want more insights on Leading Health System priorities and challenges? Join our community today
.
