Here's when Ascension St. Vincent says electronic health records will be restored following cyberattack
The cyberattack happened May 8. Ascension St. Vincent in Indianapolis, Indiana, has announced that its electronic health records will be restored following a cyberattack. The cyberattack left patients with longer wait times and some delays in in-person visits, with patients advised to bring notes on symptoms and a list of current medications, including prescription numbers or bottles. The hospital and facilities remain open and providing patient care. Justin Neisser, a traveling nurse who has been working at Ascension St Vincent for three years, said the confusion surrounding the incident was a daily confusion. He said it was difficult to reconcile the correct medications given to patients, as they are often reconciled wrong or given the wrong medications.
Pubblicato : 11 mesi fa di WTHR.com staff in Health Tech
"Ascension continues to work expeditiously alongside industry-leading cybersecurity experts in our efforts to safely restore systems across our network. Please know our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing patient care," the spokesperson said in a statement.
When it comes to in-person visits, Ascension said, "patients may encounter longer than usual wait times and some delays. To help with delays, patients should bring notes on symptoms and a list of current medications, including prescription numbers or bottles. In the event that appointments need to be rescheduled, an Ascension associate will contact patients directly."
"We couldn't print forms out. We didn't have medications records for patients. It was just a lot of confusion," said Justin Neisser, who has been a traveling nurse for the last three years, most recently working at Ascension St. Vincent in Indianapolis. "There's still a lot of confusion — like a daily confusion."
"Sometimes, they are reconciled wrong. Sometimes, patients may be getting wrong medications, or medications may be the wrong route. Maybe oral to IV. Could be the wrong dose," Neisser said.
"If a patient has been in the hospital for more than three days, the charts we're getting is about a quarter-inch thick, so we can't keep all of the paper documents, so someone is assigned to thin out the charts and take older documents," Neisser said. "The issue is when these charts are thinned out, they're taking the physician orders with them, so now I have a handwritten medication record, but I have no way to reconcile if these are the correct medications because now I don't have physical copies of the orders."
"Sometimes, it's hard to tell if a medication has already been given. You don't know and you don't want to double dose anyone, or if a medication was held or if it was discontinued. You really have no way to reconcile this with the physician's orders," Neisser said.
Temi: Security, Security Breach, Cyber Crime