Testing Your Disaster Recovery Plan: Tabletop Exercises That Reveal the Gaps

A plan is a theory until exercised

A disaster recovery plan that has never been exercised is a theory. A tabletop exercise is the low-cost, high-value way to test it: you gather the key people, present a realistic scenario, and talk through the response step by step. You do not touch any systems, but you find the gaps that would bite you in a real event.

Include the whole response team

Run the exercise with the people who would actually respond, not just IT. Include clinical leadership, front desk, and whoever handles communications. Present a specific scenario, like the EHR is unavailable at the start of clinic, and ask each person what they do in the first hour, the first four hours, and by end of day. Capture every assumption that turns out to be wrong.

Convert findings into action

Turn the findings into a short action list with owners and dates, then run another exercise in six months. Each round tightens the plan, clarifies roles, and builds the muscle memory that makes a real response calm instead of chaotic. Our business continuity and disaster recovery service facilitates these exercises.

What to do next

Schedule a 90-minute tabletop within 60 days using a realistic EHR-down scenario.

• Include clinical and operational staff, not just IT
• Walk through specific time intervals in the scenario
• Convert findings into an action list and retest regularly