What do we do if the system or internet goes down? — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
You need a written plan, printed and posted at reception before you need it — not improvised during the crisis. The minimum: paper forms ready for recording visits, a printed list of the day’s appointments exported automatically every morning, a way to verify insurance by phone, and a named person responsible for contacting support. Most important: the steps for entering what was recorded on paper once the system returns.
The plan is written, printed and posted at reception before you need it, because a crisis is not the time to compose one. Its minimum contents are five items: printed paper forms stored somewhere known, the day’s appointment list exported and printed automatically every morning (this alone rescues an entire day), an alternative way to verify insurance, a named person with their number for contacting support, and the steps for entering what was recorded on paper once service returns.
And the second item is the highest-return and lowest-cost: automatically exporting tomorrow’s appointment list every evening to a file and a printed copy. When the system stops in the morning you know who is coming, when, and with which physician, so you continue on paper instead of closing the doors. A facility without that list loses a full working day to a two-hour outage.
And distinguish two kinds of outage, because the responses differ: internet loss alone (the local system may still run, with the problem confined to insurance and external links), and the system itself stopping (everything goes to paper). And test the plan once a year with a short drill — an untested plan reveals its gaps when you need it rather than before.
- Printed and posted at reception before you need it
- Auto-export tomorrow’s appointments each evening — it rescues a day
- A named person and their number for contacting support
- The steps for entering paper records once the system returns