“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”
- Alan Lakein
Business continuity for healthcare analyzes a hospital’s preparedness in cases of certain disasters as well as how to achieve a holistic program to ensure that these hospitals can continue to perform critical functions amidst any disruptive event. It entails an organization’s ability to ensure that operations and core business functions are not severely impacted by a disaster or unplanned incident that could disrupt critical systems and halt essential processes.
Our Business continuity plans for healthcare are implemented via protocols, procedures, decisions and activities outlined in a document that states how a business would continue operating despite unplanned disruption in service. These plans may outline how business operations will be maintained in view of long and short term damages.
We are not oblivious to the fact that in healthcare it is critical to have a business continuity plan to be able to keep healthcare centers open against events that range from; disruptive weather, cyber-attacks and pandemics. Hence, we keep in mind industry standards when we draw up plans, as well as take into consideration individual aspects of the business and their functions in the grand scheme - while laying more emphasis on the most vulnerable and fallible factors in healthcare.
Understanding vulnerability is an important part of our process, because we aim to create realistic and contemporary protocols which are tailored to the unique requirements of healthcare and healthcare systems: Which includes Emergency Management / Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), Information Security (InfoSec), IT Disaster Recovery (IT DR).
At Nivaron, we offer continuity of care while staying in line with the 5 core Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules; Privacy, Transactions and Code Sets, Security, Unique Identifiers, and Enforcement, scheduled for handling client information. Our staff are cognizant of the five rules and our processes are HIPAA compliant as stated below.
Privacy rule – We ensure that a privacy rule is predefined to protect individual medical history while setting limits and conditions on who can access them as well as a non-disclosure agreement between patients and the healthcare system with regards a patient’s information.
Security rule – Subsequently, we outline the security measures and standards related to safeguarding the storage, transmission and accessibility of these medical records.
Transaction rule – We stipulate the code of conduct employed in executing the HIPAA transactions for the sole purpose of accuracy and security.
Identifier rule – Afterwards, we assign unique identifiers to insured patients for HIPAA regulated transactions by means of a 10 digit National Provider Identifier (NPI) code, a National Health Identifier (NHI) and a Standard Unique Employer Identity (EIN).
Enforcement rule – And as a control measure, we set in place an enforcement rule to handle penalties for violation.
Our assessment process for the likelihood of a disruptive event sees us place emphasis on conditional nomograms as an aid to continuity in care. Technology is now integral to effective healthcare and continuity plans and we recognize this fact, so we design plans to provide conditional nomograms to make the continuity process smoother because we know that a plan that will survive contact with reality is built around real data as much as experience - because no two patients or events are the same.
Since we understand that staff shortage and over worked staff can pose an imminent danger to lives. Therefore, it falls within our capacity and part of our service plan to provide registered nurses and certified physical therapist to bolster the existing workforce. Our expert medical practitioners offer industry-specific services to ensure continuity in healthcare and proffers seamless steps to recovery with limited medical and financial implications.