Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Health Administration

College

College of Health Professions

First Advisor

Jillian Harvey

Second Advisor

Donald M. Peace

Third Advisor

Trudie Milner

Abstract

With the release of the 2016 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) requirements for healthcare institutions to implement business continuity planning into their organizations by November 15, 2017, the focus of business continuity and disaster recovery planning solely for information services has now transitioned into an enterprise-wide requirement. Over the past decade, there have been increasing numbers of naturally occurring and man-made disasters that have significantly interrupted or altogether closed healthcare facilities, impacting the health and well-being of entire communities. This study examines the changing regulatory landscape that requires healthcare institutions to develop, maintain, and regularly test their business continuity plans in an effort to enhance their operational resiliency. After a retrospective review of regulations, guidelines, and best practices, this study pilots an addition to the Kaiser Permanente hazard vulnerability assessment (HVA) tool that is intended to enable healthcare organizations to objectively identify, prioritize, and maintain their business continuity and emergency management planning efforts through the identification of potential operational and financial impacts to healthcare facilities during and following disasters. The major benefits of this study are to identify the historical shortcomings of a healthcare facility’s hazard and risk identification processes and to facilitate the use of the information collected during that process. Identified inadequacies from past healthcare preparedness efforts will be used to form new meaningful efforts to enhance the recognition of risks to healthcare organizations, in an effort to enhance their resiliency to interruptions of services and to minimize financial losses during austere events.

Rights

All rights reserved. Copyright is held by the author.

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