On Thursday, a prominent US health care system announced that it’s diverting ambulances away from “several” of its hospitals due to a cyberattack earlier in the week.
Ascension, a St. Louis-based nonprofit network with 140 hospitals across 19 states, disclosed that the cyberattack is causing disruptions in accessing electronic health records, some phone systems, and various systems for ordering tests, procedures, and medications. The sprawling health care network, which also oversees 40 senior living facilities, stated that it would be implementing “downtime procedures” for the time being, which involve reverting to backup processes such as paper records to ensure patient care continues.
The hack was made public on Wednesday, and Ascension has since taken steps commonly seen in the aftermath of cyberattacks, including notifying federal authorities, hiring cybersecurity firm Mandiant for recovery efforts, and shutting down systems to mitigate the incident.
In a statement released Thursday evening, Ascension assured that it’s supporting its facilities in providing safe patient care despite the cyberattack. However, the extent of the impact on ambulance diversion across Ascension hospitals remains unclear.
This incident adds to a series of major cyberattacks targeting US health care networks, with the February ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, being another notable example. The attack disrupted billing operations at pharmacies nationwide and raised concerns about the vulnerability of the US health care system to cyber threats.
