President orders steps to protect against electromagnetic pulses

President Trump this week signed an executive order to federal agencies on coordinating national resilience to electromagnetic pulses, which can disrupt, degrade and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems. Among other actions, the order calls for federal agencies to work with private sector partners to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, which includes hospitals and health systems. In 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Technical Resources Assistance Center & Information Exchange published a guide to help hospitals maintain resilience through a prolonged and widespread power outage caused by an attack on the power grid, extreme space weather, electromagnetic pulse or other event.