* In 2002, the entire IT network for five Massachusetts hospitals and CareGroup providers went down for almost four days * We examine the repercussions of this network failure, and the technological and structural issues that led to the network collapse. * We also propose risk management strategies to avoid similar problems in the future, specific steps that CareGroup should take, and 10 key lessons to be learned from this case * In 1996, five sizable hospitals in Massachusetts merged. * CareGroup was the team of healthcare providers who offered healthcare to this vast patient population. * The IT department of CareGroup needed to create an IT network that integrated each facility's numerous departments * By 2002, the hospitals were brought together on a common system and shared what was believed to be among the most advanced network systems in the United States at the time
What went wrong? * In November 2002, a researcher in CareGroup was experimenting with a file sharing application * Upon finding that his wife was in labor, he suddenly left with the software running in an untested state * This new application began to explore surrounding networks and copied data in large volumes, eventually moving terabytes of data across the network * On November 13 2002, the entire network for CareGroup went down for almost four days * No one in the IT department was able to identify the problem- eventually field experts from Cisco were called in with their "IT Swat Team"
Issues Contributed to network problem: * The overall network had high complexity - individual smaller networks had been added one at a time during the merger. The network had gradually become "out of spec”- there was no clear pathway for data * There was not an effective back-up plan for electronic downtime - the facilities had the forms and capability