Home Health Downtime Plan & EHR Outage Checklist
When the EHR goes down, phones drop, or a ransom message shows up on a screen, your staff need to know who is in charge, which patients come first, and how to keep visits moving on paper. This kit gives your agency an editable starting point to write that down before it happens.
- ✓ Editable Word plan with an EHR downtime procedure
- ✓ 2-page ransomware and downtime checklist to print and post
- ✓ 4-tab Excel continuity workbook
- ✓ First draft in about 3 to 4 hours
The problem: most downtime plans live in someone’s head
Home health runs on the EHR, the phones and a few key people. When one of them fails, the office scrambles, field clinicians call in for instructions, and nobody is sure who can declare downtime or how paper notes get back into the record.
This kit turns those decisions into a short written plan, a checklist staff can follow in the first hour, and a workbook that keeps contacts, critical functions and manual workarounds in one place.
One ZIP file. 5 components, 6 editable and printable files.
See the actual pages
These previews are taken from the files you download.
Who it is for
- Home health administrators and agency owners
- Emergency preparedness coordinators
- Office managers and clinical operations leads
- Agencies with no written downtime plan, or one nobody has opened in years
How agencies use it
- Write down who declares EHR downtime and who backs them up
- Decide how office staff and field clinicians work on paper, and how records get entered afterward
- Post a 2-page checklist at the front desk for the first hour of an outage or ransomware event
- Keep vendor, carrier and IT contacts in one place
- Walk through one scenario with staff and log what needs fixing
What this kit is not
This is a planning template. Using it does not make your agency HIPAA compliant, CMS compliant, audit ready or secure, and it is not legal, clinical, compliance or technical advice. Home health agencies that participate in Medicare have their own emergency preparedness requirements (42 CFR 484.102); this kit does not replace meeting them.
It does not set clinical patient priorities or make ransomware decisions for you. Those belong to your clinical leadership, legal counsel, insurance carrier and IT support. License: use within one organization.
For a provider-neutral overview of what downtime procedures should cover, read EHR Downtime Procedures: What to Put in Writing.
Questions
How do I buy and download it?
Click Buy on Etsy. Checkout, payment and delivery are handled by Etsy. After payment, download the ZIP from your Etsy Purchases page and unzip it on a computer.
What software do I need?
Microsoft Word and Excel work best. The files also open in Google Docs/Sheets, LibreOffice and Apple Pages/Numbers, though some formatting or dropdowns may display differently. PDFs open in any reader.
Will this make my agency HIPAA or CMS compliant?
No. It is a planning template and is not designed or verified to meet 42 CFR 484.102. Confirm your requirements with qualified advisors.
Is this the same as the $499 EHR downtime tabletop exercise?
No. The $29 kit is a written plan, checklist and workbook for home health agencies. The $499 Hospital Cyberattack / EHR Downtime package is a separate tabletop exercise for hospitals, listed on the Products page.
Does it tell us which patients to see first?
No. It gives you a place to record your patient priority list. The criteria must come from your agency’s qualified clinical leadership.
Can I store patient information in the workbook?
No. Do not store passwords, access tokens, payment-card information or patient-specific PHI in it.
How was it made?
The kit and its preview graphics were created by Forward Security Labs with the help of AI tools, and all content was reviewed by Forward Security Labs before release.
Get your downtime plan started today
$29 · instant download · editable Word, Excel and PDF files
Buy on Etsy · $29You will complete your purchase on Etsy. Forward Security Labs does not take payment for this product on this site.