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Case Study

Emergency Preparedness for Hospitals

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Overview

In January 2023, an EF-2 tornado cut a 32-mile path through Jasper County, Georgia, knocking out the cellular towers that kept Jasper Memorial Hospital online. The hospital lost internet access for nine days, putting patient registration, lab orders, dialysis management, and staff communication at risk. By deploying a Plum Case, the hospital restored an independent connection and kept critical operations running through the recovery.

About

Jasper Memorial Hospital is the county’s first choice for medical care, offering everything from patient registration and laboratory work to dialysis. Designated a Critical Access Hospital in 2000 under the federal Office of Rural Health Policy, Jasper Memorial plays an essential role in its rural community, where reliable access to care and the connectivity that supports it leave little room for interruption.

Challenge

Hospital Internet Failure

The tornado damaged the cellular towers that carried the hospital’s internet service, leaving Jasper Memorial without connectivity for nine days. Modern hospital operations run on that connection. Without it, the staff’s ability to handle patient registration, process lab orders, manage dialysis, and communicate internally was severely limited, straining care during an already difficult recovery period.

Over the course of four days, the Plum Case successfully delivered the necessary connectivity, ensuring that key processes critical to patient care and hospital administration could continue without interruption.

Solution

The hospital’s leadership moved quickly to restore connectivity with a Plum Case, a portable, self-contained kit that delivers network access when standard infrastructure is down. The Plum Case established an independent internet connection on site, bridging the gap left by the damaged towers. Over four days, it delivered the connectivity the hospital needed to keep patient care and administrative processes moving without waiting on tower repairs.

Outcome

The Plum Case kept essential operations running through the outage. Patient registration, lab order processing, and dialysis management continued with minimal disruption to care. With core systems back online, leadership and staff were able to shift their attention from managing a connectivity crisis back to patients. Just as important, having a contingency solution ready showed the hospital could adapt to an unexpected event and keep serving its community, a reminder of the value of a connectivity plan in place before disaster strikes.