Implementing high availability (HA) in one’s hospital has many benefits for both patients and the hospital such as improving the patients’ safety and operational efficiency of the service delivered.
Patients: For the patients, being able to access the critical health services (such as being able to book an urgent appointment for counseling services for their mental well-being and worries related to their conditions) at their time of need can go a long way. Consequently, it can lead to having more trust and satisfaction in the services they received from the facilities by improving their experience. Besides, it can improve patients’ safety by being able to access their medical records and history in critical times like emergency situations for better clinical decision support.
Hospitals: Minimizing downtime and ensuring high availability can enhance the operational continuity of the important hospital services including patient management system, and clinical decision support system (CDSS). Being able to pull up patient record at their time of need, clinicians can provide better clinical decision and care. Additionally, having high availability by applying systems like RAID and other redundant systems can ensure data protection and security. After all, having a disaster recovery plan and backups can prevent from the loss of sensitive and valuable patient information. By doing so, it enhances the experience and safety of the patients resulting in high reputation for the hospital.