This week, a severe cyber attack disrupted crucial operations at Ascension hospitals and facilities.
The incident occurred on Wednesday (May 8), involving multiple Metro Detroit Ascension hospitals.
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The cyber attack has significantly disrupted patient services, leading to long wait times for medical procedures and other forms of care.
Ascension released an update on Thursday, confirming it was a cybersecurity incident.
They said the currently unavailable systems include their electric health records system, MyChart (which enables patients to view their medical records and communicate with their providers), some phone systems, and various systems utilized to order specific tests, procedures, and medications.
They have implemented protocols and procedures to address the system disruption and continue providing safe patient care.
Some non-emergent elective procedures, tests, and appointments have been temporarily paused while they work to bring systems back online.
Due to downtime procedures, several hospitals are currently diverting emergency medical services to ensure emergency cases are triaged immediately.
“Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption.
Safely caring for patients remains our highest priority as we navigate this cybersecurity incident. We are actively supporting our ministries as they continue to provide safe, patient care with established downtime protocols and procedures, in which our workforce is well-trained.
It is expected that we will be utilizing downtime procedures for some time. Patients should bring to their appointment notes on their symptoms and a list of current medications and prescription numbers or the prescription bottles, so their care team can call in medication needs to pharmacies.”
Ascension