Hospitals hit by ransomware attack break down impact on operations, patients
For the first time, top leadership from the five hospitals in southwestern Ontario hit by a ransomware attack answered questions from the media — acknowledging the significant impact the incident has had on care, as well as the large amount of data that has been stolen.
During the roughly 50-minute meeting on Friday, each hospital CEO said their facility has been hard hit by the Oct. 23 attack, but that recovery is ongoing and they’re getting by with the hard work of staff. With systems down and hospitals unable to access critical information, thousands of patient appointments have been cancelled across the five hospitals, creating backlogs of varying lengths at some of the facilities.
Some of the institutions also said that they have started reaching out to the thousands of patients and staff whose information has been leaked onto the dark web. The hospitals are providing those impacted with a free credit monitoring service.
The hospital CEOs also stood behind IT provider TransForm, saying that they are “confident” the group is working hard to get systems back online, with a priority on clinical services.
“We apologize for this. And we apologize for the inconvenience this has had and the issues this has caused for the patients in our community,” said Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj.
“But I can tell you individually and collectively, our focus is on them and our focus is on our staff to regain that trust.”
Here are the latest updates each hospital shared.
Bluewater Health
Bluewater Health in Sarnia says without access to its systems, “there has been an impact on our families and patient experience.”
CEO Paula Reaume-Zimmer says urgent and emergency cases have been prioritized and as a result, their diagnostic imaging department has had to cancel more than 3,500 appointments, causing a “significant and growing backlog.”
She also says labs in the Sarnia and Petrolia regions are deferring walk-in, non-urgent cases to deal with emergent ones.
She says staff have been notifying patients of changes to their…
