Six months after a devastating cyberattack on their systems, Ascension announced that electronic health records have been restored. In a statement on their website, the health care company expressed that this was a major milestone in their journey toward full recovery. While EHR systems have been restored, records collected between May 8 and the date of local restoration may be temporarily inaccessible as they continue to update the portal. Patients can contact their clinician’s office for record availability during that time period.
The attack impacted Ascension hospitals across the U.S., including six hospitals in metro Detroit. During the recovery process, all of these hospitals had to resort to using pen and paper, leading to increased wait times for patients. The incident has been a costly one for Ascension, with estimates suggesting that it could cost them upwards of $5 million to recover from the attack.
According to Ascension, the cyberattack began with an unintentional mistake made by an employee who downloaded a malicious file that they believed was legitimate. This error allowed the hackers access to the Ascension system. The company’s investigation revealed that attackers obtained a small number of files from servers primarily used for daily tasks, which might have contained sensitive health and personal data of some individuals.
Ascension has stated that they will notify those affected when they have completed their analysis of the data. They are also offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services to patients. Those interested in utilizing these services can contact Ascension at 1-888-498-8066.
