Cybersecurity Event Update
Regional Updates
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What happened?
On May 8, Ascension detected unusual activity in our network systems, which we have determined is due to a ransomware attack. We continue to diligently investigate and address this ransomware attack, working closely with industry-leading cybersecurity experts to assist in our investigation and recovery efforts.
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What services are impacted?
Systems that are currently unavailable include some electronic health records systems, some patient portals (which enables patients to view their medical records and communicate with their providers), some phone systems and various systems utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications. We have implemented established protocols and procedures to address these particular system disruptions in order to continue to provide care to patients.
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What are downtime procedures?
Downtime procedures are safe clinical practices born out of necessity. They are predefined steps that all healthcare organizations follow during a system or network failure developed in case of a potential threat. We are taking all necessary precautions at this time and our downtime procedures require our highly qualified, dedicated medical, nursing and clinical teams to utilize manual processes to ensure patients are properly cared for.
Manual processes including moving to paper records and processing everything by hand are being utilized for varying clinical processes including dispensing medication, inputting health medical records, ordering and completion of diagnostic tests and procedures, contacting patients and sharing information securely.
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When will the restoration be complete?
Our restoration work will take time, and we do not have a timeline for completion. We will continue to provide updates as appropriate.
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When will the investigation be complete?
Investigations of this nature take time to complete. While we are not able to provide an exact timetable, we will continue to provide updates as appropriate. These updates can be found on our website at https://about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event.
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Is my personal health information impacted?
If we determine sensitive data was potentially exfiltrated or accessed as part of this incident, we will notify applicable individuals and parties in accordance with our obligations.
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What do patients need to know and do?
Caring for our patients remains our highest priority. We understand there may be concerns, but our workforce is well trained in providing patient care with established downtime procedures.
Our teams are working directly with any patient whose appointment or procedure will need to be rescheduled. Unless instructed otherwise by their care team, patients should continue to attend appointments as scheduled.
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I have an onsite appointment, should I still go?
Yes. Our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing care. Caring for our patients remains our highest priority. We understand there may be concerns, but our workforce is well trained in providing patient care with established downtime procedures.
Our teams are working directly with any patient whose appointment or procedure will need to be rescheduled. Unless instructed otherwise by their care team, patients should continue to attend appointments as scheduled.
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Are Ascension locations still accepting patients?
Our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing care. However, due to downtime procedures, several hospitals are currently on diversion for emergency medical services in order to ensure emergency cases are triaged immediately. Safely caring for our patients remains our highest priority as we navigate this cybersecurity incident.
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What if I have an emergency or need an ambulance?
Our hospitals and facilities, including emergency departments, remain open and are providing care. Caring for our patients remains our highest priority. We understand there may be concerns, but our workforce is well trained in providing patient care with established downtime procedures.
If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please contact 911 and your local emergency services will bring you to the nearest hospital emergency room.
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I am currently hospitalized – should I be concerned?
Caring for our patients remains our highest priority. We understand there may be concerns, but our workforce is well trained in providing patient care with established downtime procedures.
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May 13, 2024 - 4:30pm CT
Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 13 - 4:30pm CT
Ascension previously reported that it experienced a ransomware attack that has caused disruptions to patient care in its network. Our priority remains on providing safe patient care. Ascension, with the support of leading cybersecurity experts, worked around the clock over the weekend to respond to the ransomware incident affecting our systems. We are focused on restoring systems safely. We are making progress, however, it will take time to return to normal operations. As systems and services come back online, we will share those updates so that our patients and communities can plan accordingly. We have established a dedicated website to share any updates we have across our system. We will be expanding the site this week to provide updates related to healthcare services as they relate to specific regions.
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May 11, 2024 - 2:00pm CT
Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 11 - 2:00pm CT
We continue to diligently investigate and address the recent ransomware incident, working closely with industry leading cybersecurity experts to assist in our investigation and restoration and recovery efforts. Additionally, we have notified law enforcement, as well as government partners including the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the American Hospital Association (AHA). We remain in close contact with the FBI and CISA, and we are sharing relevant threat intelligence with the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC) so that our industry partners and peers can take steps to protect themselves from similar incidents.
While our restoration work continues in earnest, our focus is on restoring systems as safely as possible. While we expect this process will take time to complete, we are making progress and systems are being restored in a coordinated manner at each of our care sites. We will continue to share updates on our recovery process.
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May 9, 2024 - 5:30pm CT
Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
On May 8, Ascension detected unusual activity in our network systems. We have determined this is a cybersecurity incident. We are working around the clock with internal and external advisors to investigate, contain, and restore our systems following a thorough validation and screening process. Our investigation and restoration work will take time to complete, and we do not have a timeline for completion.
Safely caring for patients remains our highest priority as we navigate this cybersecurity incident. We are actively supporting our ministries as they continue to provide safe, patient care with established downtime protocols and procedures, in which our workforce is well trained. It is expected that we will be utilizing downtime procedures for some time. Patients should bring to their appointment notes on their symptoms and a list of current medications and prescription numbers or the prescription bottles so their care team can call in medication needs to pharmacies.
Systems that are currently unavailable include our electronic health records system, MyChart (which enables patients to view their medical records and communicate with their providers), some phone systems, and various systems utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications. We have implemented established protocols and procedures to address these particular system disruptions in order to continue to provide safe care to patients. Out of an abundance of caution, however, some non-emergent elective procedures, tests and appointments have been temporarily paused while we work to bring systems back online. Our teams are working directly with any patient whose appointment or procedure will need to be rescheduled. We understand the frustration this may cause and sincerely regret any inconvenience to our patients.
Due to downtime procedures, several hospitals are currently on diversion for emergency medical services in order to ensure emergency cases are triaged immediately. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please contact 911 and your local emergency services will bring you to the nearest hospital emergency room.
We are beyond grateful for the hard work and dedication of our care teams across the system, and their continued commitment to our patients. We also thank our patients and our community for their continued support and patience during this time as we work through a diligent, time-intensive process to restore systems as quickly, and as safely, as possible. To ensure all patients, staff, and stakeholders are kept informed during this event, we will continue to post updated information on our website as it becomes available.
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May 9, 2024
Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson". For updates, please visit about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event
On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cybersecurity 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.
We are reaching out to our business partners to ensure they are aware of the situation so they can take appropriate steps to safeguard their systems. We encourage all business partners to coordinate with the Ascension Technology partners to address any specific questions.
This is an ongoing situation and we will provide updates on our website as we learn more.