. In an updated statement, CommonSpirit said it has notified law enforcement and cybersecurity specialists. The company, which operates hospitals across the country, is conducting"a thorough forensics investigation and review of our systems and will also seek to determine if there are any data impacts as part of that process."
"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 company went on to say it took immediate steps to protect the system and begin its investigation. Its facilities are following protocols for systems outages,"which includes taking certain systems offline, such as electronic health records." At St. Luke's, that means the Epic system, which doctors use for everything from ordering lab tests to noting physical progress, is shut down. For services like lab tests and imaging, doctors and nurses have been using a paper system, with some hospital workers physically running orders to and from hospital departments, the physician said. There are also computer systems available for doctors to access medical histories, but the process is more cumbersome, the physician said.