This paper presents a nationwide survey about how Japanese home-visit nursing stations prepared and coped with the coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 pandemic. This study also aimed to provide a practical foundation and guide to develop business continuity plans (BCPs) for home-visit nursing stations and nursing care facilities to cope with pandemics. We applied a resource-focused BCP framework to efficiently collect and summarize knowledge and experiences from many facilities about the responses and countermeasures based on the three fundamental purposes to keep resources: prevent loss, promote increase, and utilize limited resources. We conducted a survey during Japan’s third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and analyzed the responses using a qualitative and inductive content analysis method. We could develop categories to summarize various responses and countermeasures in a consistent and comprehensive manner. Based on the analysis results, we proposed six fundamental sub-plans to reorganize resource-focused BCP. The categorization and sub-plans are not special or innovative; however, since they focus only on resources and explain what we need to consider in BCPs in terms of action plans for resources, we expect that it is easier for BCP non-experts to understand the concept and utilize it for developing practical responses and countermeasures.

1. [1] World Health Organization (WHO), “WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard.” https://covid19.who.int/ [Accessed July 20, 2022]
2. [2] Health and Welfare Bureau for the Elderly, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, “Guideline for business continuity at nursig care facilities,” 2020. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000922077.pdf [Accessed July 20, 2022]
3. [3] T. Kanno et al., “Resource-centric business continuity and resiliency planning,” Proc. of the 8th REA Symp. on Resilience Engineering, 2019. https://doi.org/10.15626/rea8.21
4. [4] S. Giri, L. M. Chen, and R. Romero-Ortuno, “Nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of challenges and responses,” European Geriatric Medicine, Vol.12, No.6, pp. 1127-1136, 2021.
5. [5] J. Y. Joo and M. F. Liu, “Nurses’ barriers to caring for patients with COVID-19: A qualitative systematic review,” Int. Nursing Review, Vol.68, No.2, pp. 202-213, 2021.
6. [6] D. Palacios-Ceña et al., “Long-term care facilities and nursing homes during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of the perspectives of professionals, families and residents,” Int. J. of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol.18, No.19, 10099, 2021.
7. [7] C. Bethel, J. G. Rainbow, and K. Johnson, “A qualitative descriptive study of the COVID-19 pandemic: Impacts on nursing care delivery in the critical care work system,” Applied Ergonomics, Vol.102, 103712, 2022.
8. [8] F. L. Lombardo et al., “Adverse events in Italian nursing homes during the COVID-19 epidemic: A national survey,” Frontiers in Psychiatry, Vol.11, 578465, 2020.
9. [9] S. Mo and J. Shi, “The psychological consequences of the COVID-19 on residents and staff in nursing homes,” Work, Aging and Retirement, Vol.6, No.4, pp. 254-259, 2020.
10. [10] J. Hamano et al., “Exploration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of home health care workers in Japan: A multicenter cross-sectional web-based survey,” BMC Primary Care, Vol.23, 129, 2022.
11. [11] M. Kayama, Y. Aoki, T. Matsuo, D. Kobayashi, and F. Taki, “Concerns and desires of healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 in April and July 2020 in Japan: A qualitative study of open-ended survey comments,” BMJ Open, Vol.12, No.1, e051335, 2022.
12. [12] International Organization for Standardization (ISO), “ISO 22301:2019: Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Requirements,” 2019.
13. [13] W. N. Z. Wong and J. Shi, “Business continuity management system: A complete guide to implementing ISO 22301,” Kogan Page Ltd., 2015.
14. [14] K. L. Fulmer, “Business continuity planning: A step-by-step guide with planning forms,” 3rd Edition, Rothstein Associates, Incorporated, 2007.
15. [15] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), “Survey results of the promotion of BCP preparation at disaster base hospitals,” 2018 (in Japanese). https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000580777.pdf [Accessed July 20, 2022]
16. [16] D. Lindstedt and M. Armour, “Adaptive business continuity: A new approach,” Rothstein Publishing, 2017.
17. [17] The National Association for Visiting Nurse Service, “Member list,” (in Japanese). https://www.zenhokan.or.jp/business_society/member_list/ [Accessed July 20, 2022]
18. [18] Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, “Trend in the number of newly confirmed cases (daily).” https://covid19.mhlw.go.jp/public/opendata/newly_confirmed_cases_daily.csv [Accessed July 20, 2022]
19. [19] Social Security Council, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/05-Shingikai-12601000-Seisakutoukatsukan-Sanjikanshitsu_Shakaihoshoutantou/0000170290.pdf [Accessed July 20, 2022]
20. [20] The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, “White paper on small and medium enterprises in Japan,” 2019.
21. [21] S. Elo and H. Kyngäs, “The qualitative content analysis process,” J. of Advanced Nursing, Vol.62, No.1, pp. 107-115, 2008.