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CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage caused few problems to area hospitals
Local hospitals still seeing patients through CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage caused few problems to area hospitals
Hospitals in southcentral Pennsylvania were impacted by the CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage on July 19, but said patient care was uninterrupted.
“UPMC has been impacted by the worldwide CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage affecting fewer than 10% of our Microsoft Windows-based devices at some of our facilities.” UPMC spokesperson said in an email. “UPMC’s IT team intervened early to mitigate the problem and is restoring servers and PCs.”
WellSpan Health said patient care was unaffected and all facilities were operational.
“Like many organizations worldwide, WellSpan is experiencing sporadic IT disruptions related to the CrowdStrike outage. We remain open for patient care and our IT professionals are working diligently to implement a fix to the affected computers. WellSpan Health is committed to providing safe, reliable, high-quality care, and we are working quickly to address this issue,” a health system spokesperson said.
A Penn Medicine spokesperson said Penn Medicine was impacted by a global computer outage issue related to CrowdStrike anti-virus/malware updates, including its Lancaster General Hospital.
“Our hospitals, including our emergency departments, are fully staffed and continuing to care for patients. Penn Medicine locations are using well-established “downtime” procedures where necessary,” a hospital spokesperson said.
Outpatient appointments and procedures in some locations may be canceled and rescheduled today, the spokesperson said. Patients whose appointments must be canceled will receive a phone call or text message with more information.
“Our teams are working to restore systems and return to normal operations as quickly as possible,” he said.
Penn State Health does not utilize CrowdStrike, however some of its vendors do, according to a health system spokesperson.
“As a result, we are seeing minimal impact, mostly across retail and administrative functions at this time. Patient care, including clinic appointments and medical and surgical procedures, is continuing without interruption,” the spokesperson said.
