Emergency medical services are being diverted as Ascension hospitals nationwide grapple with cyberattacks

This week, a major cyberattack disrupted critical operations at Ascension hospitals and facilities.

The incident occurred on Wednesday (May 8) and affected several Metro Detroit Ascension hospitals.

The cyberattack has significantly impacted patient care and resulted in long wait times for medical procedures and other forms of care.

The network included 140 hospitals and dozens of senior living facilities in 19 states, including Michigan.

Ascension released an update on Thursday confirming it was a cybersecurity incident.

They said systems currently unavailable include their MyChart electronic health record system (which allows patients to view their medical records and communicate with their providers), some telephone systems and various systems for ordering specific tests, procedures and medications.

They have implemented protocols and procedures to resolve the system malfunction and continue to provide safe patient care.

Some non-urgent elective procedures, tests and appointments have been temporarily suspended while work is done to bring systems back online.

Due to downtime, several hospitals are currently rerouting emergency services to ensure emergencies are treated immediately.

“Our care teams are trained to deal with these types of disruptions and have procedures in place to ensure patient care continues to be safe and disrupted as minimally as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption.

Safe patient care remains our top priority as we address this cybersecurity incident. We actively support our ministries to continue to provide safe patient care with established response protocols and procedures in which our staff are well trained.

It is expected that we will be using fallout procedures for some time. Patients should bring notes about their symptoms as well as a list of current medications and prescription numbers or prescription bottles to their appointment so that their care team can report medication needs to pharmacies.”

Ascension