Rideout Memorial Hospital in Yuba City, Calif., is recovering from the fallout of a week-long EHR outage triggered when an HVAC system burned out, according to an article on the Health IT Outcomes website.
The disruption occurred while an inspection team from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals was visiting. The facility currently does not have Joint Commission certification.
One of the hospital's two HVAC units burned out, and a second unit also failed when it overcompensated for the burned-out unit. As the temperature rose, it exceeded the computer system's tolerance.
The incident affected the hospital’s entire computer system from email to patient medical records. Rideout officials said that no records were lost and there were no negative effects on patients or patient care.