For many facilities, the internet is no longer a convenience. Hosted electronic health records, cloud-based pharmacy systems, eFax, VoIP phones, telehealth visits and even some nurse call systems depend on a working connection. If your single internet line fails, staff may be unable to chart, receive orders or phone physicians. A backhoe cutting a cable down the road can become a care delivery problem.
Redundancy means having a second path so that one failure does not take you offline. This post explains the options in plain language.
Before spending anything, list what stops working without internet.
Cloud or hosted EHR
E-prescribing and pharmacy ordering
eFax and secure messaging
VoIP phones
Telehealth
Email and cloud file access
Remote monitoring or camera systems
Building controls and door systems with cloud management
For each, decide what the downtime procedure is and how long you can tolerate an outage. The answers will help you choose how much redundancy to buy.
Cable (coax). Common and affordable. Speeds are shared with the neighborhood, and upload speed is usually lower.
Fiber. Fast, symmetric and generally reliable, where available.
Dedicated business circuits. Typically include service level agreements with faster repair commitments and fixed addresses.
Fixed wireless. Delivered by radio from a nearby tower. Useful where wired options are limited.
Cellular (4G/5G) backup. Quick to install, works as a failover, but may have data caps or variable performance.
Satellite. An option in rural areas, with higher latency, which can affect voice and some applications.
In Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, rural facilities often have fewer choices, which makes backup planning more important.
Two lines from the same company that run through the same underground conduit are not truly redundant. Look for diversity in:
Provider. Two separate carriers reduce the chance of a shared outage.
Technology. Fiber plus cellular or fixed wireless avoids a single type of failure.
Physical path. Ask whether the circuits enter the building at different points and follow different routes.
Power. Both connections need power at the building. Equipment should be on a battery backup, and critical gear on a generator circuit.
A router or firewall capable of multiple internet connections monitors each line. If the primary stops passing traffic, it automatically switches to the secondary within seconds, and switches back when the main line returns. Some setups use both lines at once for load balancing, which also adds capacity.
Considerations:
Fixed addresses. Some systems, such as VPNs and certain vendor connections, expect a specific address. Failover may require configuration with the vendor.
VoIP. Calls in progress may drop during a switch, but new calls should connect quickly if configured properly.
Performance on backup. A cellular backup may be slower, so decide which traffic gets priority. Charting and phones should win over streaming and guest Wi-Fi.
Monitoring. You should receive an alert when failover occurs, so a failed primary line does not go unnoticed for weeks.
What is the service level agreement, and how fast do you repair outages?
Do you offer a second, diverse path?
Is the equipment on your side battery-backed?
Who do I call, and is there an after-hours escalation?
What happens to our fixed addresses?
Does our firewall support automatic failover?
When was failover last tested?
Do we have alerts for line outages?
Is guest Wi-Fi limited during failover?
A failover that has never been tested is a guess. Schedule a test during a quiet period, unplug the primary connection and verify that the EHR, phones and eFax still work. Document the results and repeat at least once a year. Include staff in a quick drill on what to do if both connections fail, such as switching to paper procedures and calling the helpdesk.
A backup connection costs a monthly fee, but the cost of an hour of lost charting, delayed admissions or missed orders is usually larger. Weigh the cost of redundancy against how critical connectivity is to your operations, and consider cellular backup as an inexpensive first step.
CMS emergency preparedness requirements for long-term care facilities call for plans that keep essential services running during disruptions. Communication and records access are part of that, so redundancy supports compliance as well as operations.
UnityCare IT designs and tests failover for healthcare facilities, working with carriers on diverse paths and configuring firewalls to prioritize care-critical traffic. If you have only one internet line, we can review options for your location.
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