IT Downtime – A Cultural Shift

With the mounting evidence of benefits and incentives to digitize clinical information, healthcare organizations are increasingly reliant on information technology (IT) to deliver services. This reliance warrants organizational awareness and preparedness for IT downtimes such that in times of system outages, staff can continue to perform their work. At University Health Network (UHN), the responsibility of IT downtime preparedness does not lie solely with IT: the combination of organizational preparedness, incident management and a standardized recovery model has enabled UHN to handle major IT downtimes. This article will share UHN's journey to foster a culture of downtime preparedness.