A cloud clinic system needs a rehearsed fallback for lost connectivity. Agree who coordinates the interruption, how temporary work is identified and who reconciles it afterwards. An open browser tab is not proof that a record has been saved.
Talven requires an internet connection and does not currently support offline operation. This guide is an operational planning worksheet for a clinic owner, not a substitute for the clinic's clinical downtime or emergency procedures. The responsible clinical team must decide what care can safely continue when records are unavailable.
Distinguish a connection problem from an uncertain save
When a screen stops responding, first note the task and whether the system confirmed success. A missing confirmation can mean the request failed, is still processing, or succeeded before the connection was lost. Repeatedly clicking Save or recording a payment again can make reconciliation harder.
Use the clinic's approved checks to distinguish one affected device from a wider connection or service problem. Assign one person to contact support with the page name, time and error message. Leave patient information, private document links and invitation tokens out of the support report.
If a visit was saved before the interruption, it may already exist when service returns. The recovery check is therefore “find and verify,” not “enter everything again.” This matters for bookings, consultations, invoices and payments.
Agree the fallback before a busy session
Choose a coordinator and a backup. Decide where authorized staff can find the downtime instructions and any approved temporary forms when the web application itself is inaccessible. A plan stored only inside the unavailable system is difficult to use.
Use the worksheet below to assign responsibilities. The clinic should define its own approved record-handling and retention process rather than improvising during an interruption.
| Work area | Decision to make in advance | Responsible person |
|---|---|---|
| Patient identity | How to distinguish returning patients and temporary registrations | ___ |
| Appointments | Which temporary list is authoritative and how changes are marked | ___ |
| Clinical work | Who decides whether care can continue without the usual record | ___ |
| Payments | How collections and receipt references are recorded and checked | ___ |
| Recovery | Who reconciles each record type and resolves uncertainty | ___ |
Keep temporary records controlled and accessible only to authorized staff. Avoid using personal phones, email or chat as an unplanned replacement for the clinic record. If a backup connection or device is part of the plan, test it with synthetic data and confirm it is suitable for clinic use.
Keep one temporary source of truth
The main coordination risk is several people maintaining competing lists without realizing it. Give the temporary process a clear start time and identify who can update it. For each item, record enough context to match it later using the clinic's approved identifiers.
For example, a fictional training exercise might include a returning patient whose booking is already saved and a walk-in who has not been registered. Marking both simply as “new appointment” creates avoidable ambiguity. The exercise should show how the team distinguishes an existing record from work still awaiting entry.
Clinical notes and medicine instructions must remain the responsibility of the treating clinician. Reception should not reconstruct clinical content from memory when connectivity returns.
Reconcile in a deliberate order
- Confirm the service is working and tell the team when normal entry resumes.
- Match each temporary item to the correct patient before creating a new record.
- Check whether the appointment or change already exists, then resolve missing or conflicting entries.
- Have the authorized clinician review clinical documentation using the clinic's approved process.
- Compare each payment with its independent receipt or transaction evidence before recording anything missing.
- Review unfinished reports, invitations and follow-up tasks with their assigned owners.
Do not change the original time or author of clinical work merely to make a record look contemporaneous. Use the clinic's approved process for late entries or amendments, and retain the original evidence according to its policy. In Talven, finalised clinical notes are immutable; corrections use append-only amendments.
Close the interruption, including exceptions
A coordinator should record what has been reconciled and what remains uncertain. “Internet restored” and “records reconciled” are different milestones. Give every unresolved item an owner, especially an unmatched patient, an uncertain collection or clinical content awaiting review.
Rehearse the plan with fictional data before a pilot. Try an interruption immediately after a booking submission and another before a print completes. Review whether staff could locate the instructions and identify already-saved work without duplicating it.
For related checks, use the billing reconciliation guide, patient identity guide and access and permissions help. Include the downtime process in your clinic software evaluation, rather than treating offline capability as an assumed feature.