Business Continuity Planning:: An Effective Strategy During an Electronic Health Record Downtime

Abstract The lack of an organizational strategic plan to continue providing care during interruptions to electronic health records (EHR) hinders nurses’ confidence in performing nursing tasks competently and ensuring patient safety. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to assess the impact of an EHR downtime preparedness plan on nurses’ confidence and knowledge of necessary resources. Lewin’s Change Theory was used as the framework. The plan–do–study–act cycle was used to assess the effects of a business continuity plan and tabletop exercises. Results suggest that using tabletop exercises to simulate downtime scenarios improved nurses’ confidence and knowledge of resources during downtime.