A decade ago, losing the internet meant no web browsing. Today it can mean no electronic health record, no pharmacy ordering, no eFax, no voice-over-IP phones and no way to reach physicians. As more clinical and business systems move to the cloud, a single internet circuit is a single point of failure for the whole building.
Here is how to think through redundancy and budget for it in a realistic way.
Before choosing a solution, list every service that stops working without a connection.
Cloud-hosted EHR and eMAR
Phone system and nurse call integrations
Cloud fax and e-prescribing
Pharmacy and lab connections
Email and collaboration tools
Telehealth visits
Door access, cameras and monitoring tools with cloud components
Resident and guest Wi-Fi, which families notice quickly
Then rank them by the impact of an outage. A short outage of guest Wi-Fi is an inconvenience, while an EHR outage during a medication pass is a care risk.
Internet outages come from several directions:
A construction crew cuts a line near your building
Equipment failure at the provider or in your closet
A storm or power loss affecting the carrier
A problem in the provider's network that affects a whole region
A second circuit from the same provider on the same physical path may fail at the same time. True redundancy means different providers and, ideally, different physical routes or technologies.
A cable or fiber line from a separate provider offers solid performance and is the most robust option when it enters the building along a different path. Availability varies widely, especially in rural areas.
Some providers deliver internet through radio links. This can be useful where wired choices are limited, though weather and line of sight can matter.
A 4G or 5G modem that takes over automatically when the main line fails is often the quickest and most affordable option. Check data plan limits, local signal strength and whether speeds are sufficient for your critical systems, even if not for everything.
Useful in remote locations, though latency can affect some applications. Evaluate carefully before relying on it for real-time clinical systems.
A second circuit is only useful if your firewall can fail over automatically. Look for a firewall or router that supports multiple connections, monitors their health and switches without anyone touching it. Configure it so only critical traffic uses a limited backup link, if necessary, and test the failover.
Also protect the equipment with battery backup so a short power blip does not take down the network while the building generator starts.
Costs typically include:
Monthly service fees for the second connection
A one-time installation or construction fee, which can be significant for fiber
Failover-capable firewall or router hardware
Battery backup for network equipment
Setup, testing and ongoing monitoring
Obtain quotes from several providers, and ask about contract length and early termination terms.
Describe the cost of an outage in operational terms rather than dollars you cannot verify. For example, a hypothetical four-hour outage could mean paper charting for the entire building, delayed admissions and staff overtime to enter information afterward. Compare that with the predictable monthly cost of a backup line. Tie it to your emergency preparedness planning, since CMS expects long-term care facilities to plan for communication and continuity during emergencies.
Schedule a planned failover test. Unplug the primary connection, confirm the backup activates, verify the EHR and phones work, and note how long it took. Document the results.
UnityCare IT can assess your current connectivity, identify which systems rely on it and recommend a redundancy design that fits your location and budget.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172