Health failing to count the cost of phone failures

A new survey says that a third of people working in healthcare have experienced having their phone cut off due to problems such as equipment failures or cables being accidently cut.

The YouGov survey says that 30% of those questioned said they have had their company telephone connection cut off due to failures caused by factors such as flooding, power cuts, fire, roadworks and equipment failures during the past year.

The survey of 2,453 was carried out in July and was commissioned by hosted voice over IP (VoIP) provider Inclarity.

Of the 30% who had lost their phone connection, nearly two thirds (61%) had experienced up to a full day’s phone disruption, costing them an average of £6,388 per day. Two thirds of those questioned were unaware of whether their organisation had a disaster recovery plan.

Inclarity claims that such problems could be costing the healthcare industry £6000 a day in lost revenue, or over £2m a year.

Some 40% of people in the healthcare industry said they couldn’t be contacted or didn’t know how customers or suppliers would contact them during times of phone outage.

The firm says the findings show that the healthcare industry has failed to invest in sufficient back-up plans should the network that provides their telephone services be cut. It recommends healthcare organisations invest in VoIP, so telephone calls are made over the internet rather than a conventional telephone network.

Should disaster strike businesses can divert then all calls off-site. Alternatively, firms can keep their existing PBX and connect a hosted VoIP too, ensuring they have a back-up plan in place should one network fail.

Surprisingly, the survey also revealed that one in five (21%) still relied on fax as a communication method with customers should their telephone system go down. However, when fax machines operate using a central office phone service, this is not a viable solution to the problem.

Dave Millett, chief operating officer at Inclarity, urged the healthcare industry to reassess their plans. “Too many companies in the healthcare industry leave their phone systems in jeopardy.

He added: “Healthcare organisations need to put more emphasis on ensuring their phone system is as protected from downtime as they do with other areas such as network and data access.”

Inclarity has created a free self-assessment questionnaire to help businesses assess how well prepared they are for phone downtime. To take the test visit: https://www.voice-continuity.co.uk/inclarity.