TOPEKA, Kan. (NEWSnet/AP) — A cyberattack on the Ascension health system, which has hospitals in 19 states and District of Columbia, diverted ambulances, caused patients to miss medical visits and blocked online access to their records.

The non-profit Catholic health system, headquartered in St. Louis, has 140 hospitals and about 25,000 beds.

An Ascension spokesperson reported the system detected “unusual activity” Wednesday on its computer network systems; and that both its electronic records system and the MyChart system that gives patients direct access to their records were offline as a result.

 

“We have determined this is a cybersecurity incident,” the national Ascension spokesperson’s statement said. “Our investigation and restoration work will take time to complete, and we do not have a timeline for completion.”

“We are working around the clock with internal and external advisors to investigate, contain, and restore our systems,” the spokesperson’s statement said.

The impact affected patients and staff in a variety of ways:

  • In Wichita, Kansas, local news reports said the local emergency medical services started diverting ambulance calls from its hospitals there Wednesday, though the health system’s spokesperson there said Friday that the full diversion of ambulances ended Thursday afternoon.
  • At two Wichita hospitals, staffers were forced to use pen and paper and announce medical emergencies over the PA system because their pagers were down, a spokesperson representing the union covering those hospitals’ employees told The Wichita Eagle.
  • And WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee reported that Ascension patients in that area said they were missing CT scans and mammograms and couldn’t refill prescriptions.

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