Warren Buffet famously said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
In other words, when things are going well, all businesses are making money. But when things get worse, many risk, ahem, exposure.
For some long-term care operators, Friday was a tide-going-out kind of day. Not that they were alone.
A massive tech outage sent many essential service providers scrambling. That list included banks, airports, and yes, even some long-term care facilities. It was a stark reminder that sometimes we don’t know we’re swimming naked until the water recedes and we’re left shivering on the beach.
Scarier still? Sometimes it doesn’t take much to turn the proverbial tide. The culprit behind this fiasco? A bug in an update sent by cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike to Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Operators have reported minimal impact so far. Still, the scare surely had many in the field wondering: Are we as prepared as we think we are?
Hospitals and medical centers were taking no chances, with many turning patients away as a precaution. Mass General Brigham in Boston canceled all non-urgent surgeries, procedures and medical visits. The University of Miami Health System stayed open but warned of delays because their computer records were out of commission.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, trying to calm the waters, said the company is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” He stressed that this was not a cyberattack. The issue, he assured us, has been “identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
So, what’s the takeaway here? One is to shrug and conclude this development was no biggie. After all, these kinds of things are bound to happen in a world increasingly reliant on technology.
Then again, maybe it’s time for a bit more introspection. Maybe ask yourself: Is my facility prepared for when the next tide goes out?
It’s one thing to be shivering and maybe a bit embarrassed. It’s quite another to be left drowning.
John O’Connor is editorial director for McKnight’s.
Opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.
