The South Dakota Department of Health (SD DOH) seeks a qualified partner to conduct an Extended Downtime Health Care Delivery Impact Assessment. This assessment will target South Dakota Health Care Coalition (SD HCC) partners statewide across healthcare including but not limited to; long-term care, and public health. It will assess the impact of non-cyber-related events that disrupt healthcare operations, including IT disruptions such as system outages, network failures, data access issues, or the loss of electronic health records, as well as utility failures like water, gas, or electricity outages, disruptions in heating or cooling systems, and interruptions in waste management services, in addition to medical equipment malfunctions, natural disasters, and other related incidents. The assessment will evaluate the current operations of facilities within the coalition, focusing on their capacity to maintain critical services and support surrounding communities, particularly those most vulnerable to disasters. It will also review existing mitigation strategies to address potential impacts, including how the SD HCC collaborates with applicable partners in coordinating healthcare response and incident management for extended downtime events. The primary aim will be identifying vulnerabilities and assessing the impact of extended downtime events on these sectors. The ideal partner will have expertise in healthcare cybersecurity (including operating systems and medical equipment), healthcare coalitions, public health, emergency management, the hospital incident command system (HICS), and healthcare facility and operational management.
