Procedures for Planned and Unplanned Downtime

Planned Downtime
There will be times when Central AZ InteMed will have a planned downtime. In the
event that the system is going to be down for any period of time, your staff should
have been given advanced notice by either email or phone call. There are several
steps that can be observed before the system goes down and again once the
system becomes available for use.

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Notification of scheduled downtimes will be communicated from the IT

department or vendor via e-mail or phone calls.

The IT department or vendor will notify the practice via e-mail or phone call
when the situation has been resolved and the system is back up and running.
Scheduling Staff

Scheduling department should print out schedules for the hours/ days that
the system will be down.

Blank encounter forms and charge slips should be made available prior to
system shutdown, and kept in location accessible to scheduling employees, clinical
staff, and billing department. Patient information will be written by hand.

For new patients without a pre-scheduled appointment, assign a temporary

medical record number or other identification number (patients birthday is
acceptable during downtime only).

Upon notification that the system is in back up, scheduling personnel will:

1. Schedule and check-in those patients who entered the practice

during downtime with a regular medical record number

2. Send encounter forms or charge slips to billing department.

Clinical Staff

A paper version of the schedule will be used during the downtime, making
changes as needed.

Forms should be made available from scheduling for the patient and
healthcare providers.

Lab results will be faxed immediately to ordering department.

Upon notification that the system is in back online, a staff member will enter
the clinical information for each patient as soon as possible once the system is

online.

Billing Staff

Initiate a manual process for patient phone calls (procedure for this is in the
employee handbook). Phone calls can be returned once the system is back up.

Print an aging report (if applicable) during downtime.

Once the system is brought back online:

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Collect encounter forms or charge sheets.

Enter charges into the system in a batch day-by-day process.
Batch numbers will be assigned by management.

Unplanned Downtime
In the event of an unplanned/ unscheduled downtime, staff will need to be prepared
to handle working without computers and be able to transition to a paper process
until the system is online. Complete directions can be obtained in the employee
handbook under policies and procedures.

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Notification of unplanned downtime will be communicated by the IT

department or vendor via direct phone call.

If the practice has not been notified by the IT department or vendor, it

should contact a representative at the help desk at 480-555-5555 to report the
issue..

The IT department will notify the facility by phone call when the system is
back online.

Scheduling Staff

Upon notification from the IT department or vendor or upon realization the

system is down, schedulers will adopt the downtime procedure process (located in
employee handbook),

Use blank encounter forms and charge slips that have been made available
in advance, such an outage occurs.

Patient information will need to be written by hand.

For patients without a pre-scheduled appointment, assign a temporary
medical record number or other identification number (patients birthday is
acceptable during downtime only)

Upon notification that the system is back online, the scheduling personnel
will:

Enter the scheduled patient and check-in those patients who

entered the practice
during downtime.
Send the written encounter forms/ charge slips to billing department.

Clinical Staff

Healthcare providers and staff will need to work with the scheduling
department on the best method for determining which patient is to be seen next.
(i.e. medical necessity/chronological order)

Encounter forms/charge slips will be made available for the patient and
healthcare providers

Forms are in labeled folders located in the scheduling department.

Lab results will be faxed immediately to ordering department.

Upon notification that the system is back online, medical personnel will
enter the clinical information for each patient as soon as the system is online.

Billing Staff
Initiate a manual process for patient phone calls (procedure is listed in the
employee handbook) Phone calls can be returned once the system is online.
Once the system is back online:
Retrieve encounter forms and charge sheets from scheduling, and

clinical office.
Enter charges into the system in a batch day-by-day process. Batch
numbers will be provided by management.
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