Fiber cuts, regional outages, and power incidents are not rare events. When they occur, clinical operations can slow or pause. Patient portals can become blocked, documentation can desynchronise, telemedicine sessions can drop, and emergency communications can become fragile. A pragmatic and proven measure is to add satellite connectivity as an independent tertiary route behind fiber and 5G. This helps ensure care continues even when terrestrial networks are impaired.
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The Problem Hospitals Face
Digital care only works when the network does. Today’s portals, synchronisation, imaging exchange, and telemedicine rely on stable connectivity and predictable latency. Yet terrestrial networks share infrastructure and failure domains. A construction cut, a regional power issue, or a utility fault can affect multiple paths at once. When that happens, the impact is visible on the clinical floor: intake can slow, online services can time out, staff may switch to manual workarounds, and telemedicine consults may be postponed or dropped. Security work can also be affected, because incident response and coordination depend on communications that need to remain available.
The common pattern behind these disruptions is reliance on terrestrial-only routing. If every backup belongs to the same failure zone, resilience is more a hope than a plan. Hospitals need is an independent path that does not share terrestrial risks and that activates automatically, without asking clinicians to intervene or wait.
A Simple, Effective Response
The most practical continuity design is straightforward.
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Keep fiber for primary load.
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Add 5G for mobile diversity.
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Add satellite as the final layer for when terrestrial paths are impaired.
Modern LEO and MEO satellite services provide operational latency that supports typical clinical workflows when used as a failover layer. The result is continuity that feels invisible: sessions remain active, portals stay reachable, documentation synchronises, and video consults continue even during an outage.
Why This Matters Now Under KHZG, KHVVG, and KHTF
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KHZG: Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz (Hospital Future Act). Starting with cases from 2025, hospitals face up to a 2% reimbursement deduction if required digital services aren’t available, with usage requirements tightening from the 31.12.2027 assessment, so securing uninterrupted connectivity now directly protects compliance and revenue. See the overview.
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KHVVG: Krankenhausversorgungsverbesserungsgesetz (Hospital Care Improvement Act). The hospital reform law entered into force in December 2024 and begins restructuring from 2025, with states assigning service groups by end‑2026 and financing changes rolling out through 2027–2028, making high‑availability connectivity urgent to safeguard care continuity during the transition. See reform.
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KHTF: Krankenhaustransformationsfonds (Hospital Transformation Fund), implemented via the KHTFV regulation (Hospital Transformation Fund Regulation). The Transformation Fund defines time‑bound categories and governance for funded modernisation, so embedding a satellite failover into current transformation plans leverages available financing now and avoids unfunded reactive fixes later.
Conclusion
Continuity is care. Hospitals cannot rely exclusively on terrestrial networks in the face of fiber cuts, regional incidents, and power issues. Satellite as the last layer behind fiber and 5G offers a simple, independent path that keeps clinical services available and aligns with KHZG, KHVVG, and KHTF expectations. The strongest next step is to run a short continuity check. If all backup paths are terrestrial, there is still a single point of failure. Add the independent route so care continues when terrestrial networks fail.
Telespazio Germany’s role
Telespazio Germany is an independent SatCom system integrator and trusted advisor. We design, deploy and operate encrypted and segmented satellite paths, backed by decades of SatCom expertise and strong provider partnerships across LEO, MEO, and GEO. Our goal is simple: ensure care continues when terrestrial networks are impaired.
Run a short continuity check. If all backup paths are terrestrial, there is still a single point of failure. Add the independent route and make sure your care never stops when terrestrial networks fail.
contact: satcom@telespazio.de