Ascension has “no timeline” for recovering systems after a cyberattack

Ascension Hospital is still dealing with the fallout from a massive nationwide “cybersecurity incident” and released an update Thursday evening.

According to Ascension, they are still in the process of investigating and restoring their systems and it will “take some time to complete and we do not have a timeline for completion.”

Check out our story from Thursday with a cybersecurity expert and other patients below

Ascension Hospital is still reeling from a massive nationwide cyberattack

The health system said there are many systems that are not available. They include:

• Electronic health record system,
• MyChart (which allows patients to view their medical records and communicate with their providers),
• some telephone systems
• Various systems are used to order specific tests, procedures and medications

According to Ascension, they are in shutdown protocol and several hospitals are currently on call for emergency medical services.
Patients who have an appointment should bring their appointment notes about their symptoms, a current medication list and prescription numbers or the prescription bottles.

The health system is also pausing some non-urgent elective procedures, tests and appointments.

An emergency physician in the southeastern Michigan system told us today that systems are expected to be down within the next two weeks. They had to shut down the medication dispensing machines for patients.

“Migraine”: How the Ascension Healthcare Cyberattack Gave Doctors a Headache

“Migraine”: How the Ascension Healthcare Cyberattack Gave Doctors a Headache

Some patients told us on Facebook that Ascension staff are minimizing the impact. One tells us that they have been to the emergency room twice in the last 12 hours and despite the computer problems, everyone is very helpful and caring.

“It’s safe to assume Ascension is in scramble mode,” said Scott Bailey.

Scott Bailey of N1 Discovery is a Metro Detroit-based data security expert with extensive experience.

“We have committed one of the largest healthcare data breaches in Michigan. We have committed one of the largest violations of a public utility here in Michigan. These were all of great importance from a forensic perspective. I was caught up in the Oklahoma City bombing. I worked on the Kwame Kilpatrick case. I am a digital e-discovery advisor to the Attorney General’s Office for the Flint Water crisis,” Bailey said.

“Is it possible that the breach is still active?” our Brian Abel asked.

“That could definitely be the case. When you think about Ascension, it’s a huge, multi-state organization. Some threat actors, when they actually break into a system, will build or attempt to build backdoors into that system,” Bailey said.