Ascension, which has 14 Illinois hospitals, falls victim to ‘cyber security event’
Ascension "detected unusual activity on select technology network systems" on Wednesday.
A suspected cyberattack has disrupted clinical operations at health system giant Ascension, which has about 150 sites of care in Illinois, including 14 hospitals.
Ascension’s Illinois hospitals were still providing all patient care services as of Thursday afternoon, though some medical procedures have had to be rescheduled and there have been several IT service interruptions, said Ascension Illinois spokeswoman Olga Solares, in an email. Nationwide, the system has about 140 hospitals.
Ascension “detected unusual activity on select technology network systems” on Wednesday, according to an Ascension news release issued Thursday. Ascension said access to some of its systems has been interrupted, and it’s experiencing “a disruption to clinical operations.”
“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,” Ascension said in the release.
Ascension said it’s investigating the situation including what information, if any, may have been compromised. If any individuals’ personal information has been potentially exposed, Ascension said it will notify and support those individuals.
Ascension said it is working with Mandiant, a third party expert, to help with the investigation and remediation process.
The incident comes shortly after Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago dealt with its own cyberattack earlier this year. A group named Rhysida, an overseas ransomware operation, made claims related to that attack. Lurie took its phone, email and electronic medical record systems offline Jan. 31, after the cyberattack, and its hospital, outpatient centers and primary care offices were affected, making it more difficult for patients to reach providers. Lurie restored its systems in March.
It also follows a cybersecurity incident at Change Healthcare — a unit of UnitedHealth Group — in late February, which made it difficult for many providers to file health insurance claims,