Why Is Uptime Important for Your Hospital Network Infrastructure? 

Hospitals are using modern technology for providing quality healthcare services to their patients. They gather and manage patient’s data by using the latest technologies. Their hospital network infrastructure helps them in delivering many critical solutions. The demand for healthcare services has increased in this pandemic. Thus, every hospital should focus on its uptime. They should ensure that their infrastructure is always running. In this article, we are going to talk about the importance of uptime.

Importance of Uptime for healthcare providers

Uptime is very important for every industry. However, it is especially more important for healthcare providers. If your healthcare network can’t manage the demand, then your patient lives will be at risk. A power outage is one of the biggest nightmares of any healthcare provider. However, IT outages can also impact your EHR or electronic health records. Thus, healthcare providers should focus on minimizing IT outages. If your whole network is down, then it will affect various healthcare facilities in your network. These IT outages can also cause data breaches. Also, you can’t update your patient’s record during the outage.

The Healthcare industry is becoming more dependent on technology. Most healthcare professionals can’t treat their patients without using the latest technology. In the past, if your IT systems were down, then companies used physical film. However, most departments don’t have access to such equipment now. Also, you need expertise in producing film images during the IT outage. If your hospital network infrastructure can’t provide 100% uptime, then your IT team will waste their time doing manual tasks. They will try to make sure that they can always access the required resources. Thus, they will have very little flexibility.

IT Capacity

The importance of uptime has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most healthcare network infrastructures are facing a lot of requests. The supply chain is already disrupted due to which you can’t expand your IT capacity. It will also take time to implement remote working policies. Also, more users are trying to access digital healthcare services. They are using telemedicine services for doing self-treatment. Thus, the load on healthcare networks is increasing with time. It is important to ensure that your healthcare facilities are always available. There are many limited opportunities available during this pandemic. You need to expand your IT capacity without disturbing your existing services.

Contact tracing and testing are slowly increasing in the USA. Every healthcare provider is playing a very important in this pandemic. You need to continuously update the number of COVID-19 cases that you have treated. This will help CDC in creating an accurate picture of the pandemic. Healthcare researchers also need access to good IT infrastructure. They are using the latest technologies like ML and AI for creating a vaccine. Thus, many researchers are using cloud computing resources for sharing data with each other. They can use cloud computing technologies for collaborating with remote teams. We are going to share some tips that will help you in improving your hospital network infrastructure uptime.

1. Monitor your endpoint devices

There are hundreds of devices present in a hospital network. Your IT department should monitor these devices. This will help them in evaluating your system performance. Also, you can find potential gaps in your network. If you are regularly monitoring these devices, then you can find the devices that can disrupt your entire system. This will help your IT team in eliminating these devices before they cause downtime. Monitoring devices will also help you in streamlining your IT operations. Also, it will improve the efficiency of your network infrastructure. Thus, it will help you in reducing the strain on your network infrastructure.

2. Create Privacy Guidelines

You should always have access to your patient data. This will help you in delivering good care to your patients. However, this might expose your system to downtime threats. This can occur due to malware intrusion when you are accessing your data. Thus, you should work on creating strong privacy guidelines. This will help you in maintaining a good level of security. It is a very important step that will help you in avoiding downtime. Your data should be only accessed by authorized personnel. Most people are now working remotely due to the COVID-19 situation. Thus, you should enforce strict privacy guidelines.

3. Use Backup Systems

If you want to ensure business continuity, then you should implement a strong backup mechanism. Most healthcare providers are still using on-premise storage solutions. They should move their infrastructure to a reliable colocation provider. Colocation providers will give you access to better IT infrastructure. They are also offering 100% uptime to their users. Colocation data centers will act as your infrastructure foundation. You can set up backup systems in different data center locations. This will ensure that you will always have access to your data.

4. Perform Regular Updates

It is very difficult to regularly update your hospital network infrastructure. However, your IT department should create a system for solving this problem. If you are not regularly updating your network, then it will create many loopholes in your network. Thus, your data will be exposed to hackers. You can combine maintenance protocols with automated tools for creating a strong policy. This will help you in limiting the downtime period.

5. Create a Disaster Recovery Plan

You should try your best to avoid downtime. However, sometimes it is almost impossible to prevent downtime. Thus, you should work on creating a plan that will help you in recovering your systems. You should assess your network for finding all the potential problems. This will help you in mapping out the solutions to these problems. DR plans will help your employees in understanding their responsibilities. This will ensure that they know about their roles during a crisis.

Conclusion

Almost every healthcare industry is using technology for delivering their services. Thus, it is very important to update your network infrastructure. The importance of uptime has increased during the COVID-19 crisis. Hospital providers are offering telemedicine services to their patients. However, these services heavily rely on your network. You should work with a colocation provider for delivering your services. Most colocation providers are offering a 100% uptime SLA to their customers. This will ensure that your essential systems are always running. If you need more information regarding colocation services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.