Disasters cause a major disruption to normal operations. Hospital information systems are often well-prepared for events such as fires or natural disasters. This type of disaster planning focuses on redundancy and manual workarounds.
The SARS-CoV-2/COVID pandemic represented a new type of disaster for radiology informatics teams working at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and the University of Toledo College of Medicine. In this pandemic, the information systems continued to work but the employees, and the computers that they worked with, had to be distanced.
The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss the four phases of the disaster planning process: mitigation, planning, response, and recovery illustrated in the context of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID pandemic.
Disaster Planning During SARS-CoV-2/COVID: One Radiology Informatics Team’s Story. Journal of Digital Imaging, 11 January 2021.