By Jeff Wardon, Jr., Assistant Editor

Central Maine Healthcare took to social media on June 1 to inform patients and visitors that a system outage had impacted its technology and phone systems.  Upon discovery of the unusual activity, they immediately secured and shut off all IT applications and hardware, including network servers and phone systems.  

However, their facilities remain open for receiving and treating patients. It is unclear if the incident was due to a cyberattack or not. 

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IT outages aren’t unheard of for healthcare facilities, though they can hamper operations if unprepared. Downtime in a healthcare facility can result in delayed/disrupted care and less efficient processes eating up time.  

Having downtime plans put in place is key to navigating these situations smoothly because it can keep patient care going while the systems are out.   

Those plans involve procedures for what to do during events like an IT outage, where electronic health records (EHR) aren’t readily available. In this scenario, healthcare facilities can switch to manual processes to handle patient information and care, such as handwritten patient records and forms. 

Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor for the facilities market.