The Cyber Resilience Standard Every Hospital CIO Must Meet

LeadershipCIO NetworkThe Cyber Resilience Standard Every Hospital CIO Must MeetByDavid Chou,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Chou is a nationally recognized healthcare technology executive Follow AuthorMay 16, 2026, 06:20pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Dad and son having fun outdoors.gettyHealth systems must deliver safe patient care for 30 days or longer without core technology systems. This is no longer a regulatory goal but the minimum operational standard for cyber resilience in healthcare. Most health system CIOs have not planned for this. The Joint Commission and the American Hospital Association started the Cyber Resilience Readiness (CRR) program to help hospitals assess and improve their ability to sustain clinical operations during extended cyber outages.Cybersecurity is already expensive, with the average healthcare data breach costing $7.42 million. Greater costs come from daily downtime, lost revenue from manual charge capture and billing, and patients unable to access care and treatment.The CRR program begins with a free self-assessment tool. It asks if your organization can provide safe care if technology fails. The survey covers many areas, but four themes are the top priority for a healthcare CIO.Cyber Resilience Is Clinical OperationsThe assessment highlights a key issue: clinical, business, emergency management, and disaster recovery are often siloed rather than integrated. Typically, IT manages application recovery, emergency management leads incident response, and clinical leadership oversees patient safety. These groups rarely collaborate before a crisis, resulting in last-minute coordination. CIOs should unite these departments proactively to ensure readiness.The Board Must Be InvolvedThe CRR assessment asks how often leaders brief the board on cybersecurity and its impacts on patient care. It also...