Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital facing disruptions after cyberattack
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Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital is facing disruptions from a possible cyberattack.
Ascension, the nation's largest non-profit Catholic health system, said on its website Wednesday afternoon that it believed that "select technology network systems" were affected by what it believed was a "cyber security event."
Before Ascension posted the statement on its website, Ascension Florida spokesperson Gary Nevolis told the News Journal in a written statement that they were investigating the incident.
"We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts," Nevolis said. "Access to some systems have been interrupted as this 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."
EMS is bypassing Ascension, diverting to other hospitals
Ambulances are diverting patients to other hospitals. Escambia County spokesperson Davis Wood confirmed to the News Journal that Escambia County EMS is "on a bypass" for Sacred Heart and is currently transporting patients to other area hospitals.
The incident appears to be affecting Ascension hospitals in multiple states. News reports affecting other hospitals have been reported in other cities in Wisconsin, Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana and Michigan.
What kind of cyber attack hit Ascension health system?
Employees report to the News Journal that charting, scheduling and prescription writing systems are down.
Ascension has not released many details, other than a short statement on its website just after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"We have notified the appropriate authorities and are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation," Nevolis said. "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 on its website that its business partners should temporarily suspend the connection to Ascension's networks.
"We will inform partners when it is appropriate to reconnect into our environment," the statement said.
Ascension full statement
"On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cyber security event. At this time we continue to investigate the situation. We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts. Access to some systems have been interrupted as this 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.
We have engaged Mandiant, a third party expert, to assist in the investigation and remediation process, and we have notified the appropriate authorities. 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.
Out of an abundance of caution we are recommending that business partners temporarily suspend the connection to the Ascension environment. We will inform partners when it is appropriate to reconnect into our environment.
This is an ongoing situation and we will provide updates as we learn more."
Who is Madiant?
Ascension said it had hired cybersecurity firm Madiant to assist in the investigation and response to the incident.
Madiant is a subsidiary of Google that the tech giant bought in 2022.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.