On Thursday, hospitals all over the country were impacted when Ascencion, a big health system, announced that it had been hacked. At present, there is growing concern about security in the healthcare industry because there has been a significant increase in breaches.
On Thursday, healthcare workers in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, and other states reported that they had to stop caring for patients because Ascencion, one of the largest private healthcare systems in the U.S., was dealing with an attack. The health system located in St. Louis, which has 140 hospitals throughout the US, stated that it became aware of the attack on Wednesday. The article mentioned that hospitals were still experiencing disruptions in their clinical operations, which led them to disconnect from the online system.
“On May 8, Ascension reported that they observed unusual activity on certain technology network systems,” stated Ascension on Thursday. “We now believe that this is due to a cyber security incident.” “Currently, we are still investigating the situation.” We took immediate action, initiating an investigation and working to resolve the issue. Currently, certain systems are unavailable due to an ongoing process.
As more and more healthcare networks are being targeted by attacks, the Ascencion breach is happening at a time when hacking is receiving increased attention. Attacks can harm important information, such as protected health information, account numbers, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and addresses. Last week, Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, was requested to attend a Congressional hearing. This was in response to a ransomware attack that occurred in February, which jeopardised patient care and sensitive data. Witty informed Congress that the breach affected approximately one-third of the entire American population.
‘It feels similar to the 1980s or 1990s’ when computers are restricted
Healthcare workers at Ascension Wisconsin sites reported that they were unable to access Epic, a system used to store patients’ medical information and manage their care. Due to the interruption, doctors and nurses are unable to access patients’ medical histories or any other information about them. Now, they are unable to communicate with each other between different sections of the hospital as they previously could. Additionally, they no longer have access to a large number of the laboratories or test results that patients have previously undergone. Healthcare workers have to use paper notes to keep track of patients’ conditions, write prescriptions, and order procedures.
RN Tracey Schwerdtfeger, a nurse at Ascension St. Francis Hospital in the south side of Milwaukee, said, “This is a very serious situation.” “It has made it difficult for us to do many things.”
According to three workers who spoke anonymously because they were afraid of losing their jobs, there were issues with the computer network in Michigan around 7 a.m. on Wednesday.
“The system was shut down because there was a security risk,” a doctor informed the USA TODAY Network’s Free Press. “It is having an impact on everything.”
Another doctor from Ascension Michigan said, “We are unable to access medical records, labs, radiology or X-rays, or place orders.” It is necessary to write down everything. It feels like it’s the 1980s or 1990s. You make a phone call to the lab and receive the results of something. Afterwards, you proceed to the X-ray room to examine the film copies. However, we do receive training for these types of situations, which makes it more challenging.
A nurse informed the Free Press on Wednesday night that Ascension hospitals are still accepting critically ill patients who require life-saving care via ambulance. However, patients who were in a stable condition and could have been transferred to other nearby hospitals for treatment were sent to a different location due to the computer network failure.
“I just hope the situation doesn’t continue for a long time because it will definitely have a negative impact on patient care,” a doctor said. “The data indicates that when computer networks are not working, there is a higher chance of something bad happening.”
Ascension is collaborating with the cybersecurity consulting firm Mandiant to investigate the attack and determine if any information was lost or stolen.
“If we find out that any important information was affected, we will let the people know and help them following the rules and laws,” Ascension said in a message.
Millions of Americans are at risk due to security breaches.
Last year, there were a lot of healthcare data breaches. This put the medical information of over 144 million Americans in danger. USA TODAY discovered this information by analysing data from the Health and Human Services.
The study found that the number of attacks on third-party vendors hired by hospitals has increased by more than three times since 2019. These attacks are increasing at a faster rate compared to attacks on traditional healthcare providers.
Earlier this year, a group of hackers targeted Change Healthcare with ransomware. Change Healthcare is owned by UnitedHealth Group, and it is the largest healthcare payment system in the country. According to the HHS, the company is responsible for handling 15 billion healthcare transactions annually and one-third of all patient data.
The President of the American Hospital Association, Rick Pollack, described the attack on Change Healthcare as the most significant and impactful event of its kind in the history of the U.S. healthcare system. Pollack stated that the breach created difficulties for hospitals for nearly two weeks. This made it more challenging to obtain medications, process insurance claims, and receive payment.
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