Ascension hospitals divert patients after system-wide attack

(TNS) — Ascension hospitals in Wichita were still diverting emergency patients to Wesley Medical Center Thursday morning after a cyberattack was discovered Wednesday.

Most or all of Ascension’s 139 hospitals across the country have been affected by the attack. Ascension is one of the largest health systems in the country.

“We have retained Mandiant, an outside expert, to assist with the investigation and remediation process and notified the appropriate authorities,” Ascension said in a news release Thursday morning. “Together we are working to comprehensively investigate what information, if any, was affected by the situation. If we determine that sensitive information has been affected, we will notify and assist those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines.”

If a particular department in a particular hospital is overloaded, patient diversion may occur. although complete redirection is rare. Visitors who come to the hospital emergency room cannot be turned away; Federal law requires hospitals to stabilize anyone who comes through the door with a health emergency.

Ascension said Wednesday it had “detected unusual activity on select technology network systems that we now believe is due to a cybersecurity event.”

“We are currently continuing to investigate the situation,” the press release said. “Access to some systems has been interrupted while this process continues.”

The attack had a disparate impact on operations at Ascension hospitals across the country, leaving some medical staff unable to access medical records and relying on pen and paper instead of digital files.

At St. Francis and St. Joseph, employees have to resort to pen and paper and report medical emergencies over the PA system because their pagers are down, according to a spokesman for the union that oversees those hospitals.

This came just days after Wichita reported a cyberattack that prompted city officials to change many city operations. This attack is claimed by a Russian hacking group called LockBit, which was described in an indictment released this week as “the most prolific and destructive ransomware group in the world.” The deadline for Wichita to pay the ransom appears to be May 15th.

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