JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Clinical operations at Ascension hospitals across the country were disrupted on Wednesday following a suspected cyberattack.
Ascension, which is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the United States, said in a statement it detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which it believes is due to a “cyber security event.”
The incident took down phone and computer access for some healthcare facilities and forced medical professionals to take patient notes by hand, according to reports from around the country.
Ascension said Thursday morning it responded immediately and is investigating but access to some systems has been interrupted as the process continues.
“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,” Ascension said in a statement.
The hospital system is now using a third-party expert to help in the investigation and it has alerted authorities.
“Generally, if you see a third-party firm like this engaged, especially called out so early in the process, that would indicate some sort of high-level attack has occurred,” Tyler Chancey, a cybersecurity expert, told News4JAX. “It’s going to be something pretty major.”
Chancey is the director of Scarlett Cyber Security which prevents, detects, and responds to cyber-attacks against private and public organizations.
It’s not clear if the “cyber security event” involved ransomware, which can lock computers so hackers can demand a fee.
Chancey explained why healthcare providers are one of the biggest targets of ransomware attacks.
“They target organizations that have valuable data. And unfortunately, healthcare has kind of a two-for-one here. Healthcare has a need to always be online, functioning rapidly, functioning quickly, it is literally life or death. And so if you disrupt systems that a healthcare organization, there’s a lot of motivation for immediate reaction, immediate response, getting things back in line quickly because these systems can be critical medical systems,” Chancey said.
“Together, we are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation. Should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines,” Ascension said.
Healthcare providers across the US have suffered numerous ransomware attacks in recent years, some of which have disrupted patient care and cost healthcare providers millions, if not billions, of dollars.
Ascension is a health system that includes 140 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities in 19 states, including multiple locations around Northeast Florida.
When News4JAX reached out to representatives of the local Ascension hospitals, the statement we received didn’t mention any specific local impacts.
According to news reports in the Milwaukee area, some Ascension healthcare patients have been turned away and appointments have been canceled at the hospitals.
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