The primary health record system remains offline at St. Luke's Health hospitals in Houston, more than a week after a ransomware attack at its parent company, CommonSpirit Health.A cyber attack against a major U.S. nonprofit health system has snarled patient services for two weeks at six St. Luke's Health hospitals in Houston, where online records systems have been shut down and doctors have resorted to cumbersome backup options.
"Over the course of this past week, we have been managing a response to a cyberattack that has impacted some of our facilities," the statement said."Patients continue to receive the highest quality of care, and we are providing relevant updates on the ongoing situation to our patients, employees and caregivers. Patient care remains our utmost priority and we apologize for any inconvenience this matter has created.
The doctors said hospital workers are physically running orders to and from hospital departments. Medication orders are being faxed into pharmacies. In some cases, nurses have to wait in the lab to receive blood test results, which were previously transmitted in the record system. There are multiple backup computer systems available for doctors to access medical histories, but it can be cumbersome to find all the available information, one of the doctors said.