A cyberattack has disrupted “clinical operations” at major health care nonprofit Ascension, forcing it to take steps to minimize any impact to patient care, an Ascension spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.
“There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption,” said the statement from Ascension, a health system that includes 140 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities in 19 states. Ascension recommended that its health care clients temporarily cut off network connections to Ascension as the incident is being addressed, according to the statement.
The nonprofit “detected unusual activity” on some of its computer systems on Wednesday, prompting an investigation and notification to the “appropriate authorities,” the Ascension spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Ascension has “initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible,” the spokesperson said.
If any sensitive patient data was compromised in the hack, Ascension will notify those affected, the nonprofit said. The Ascension spokesperson did not immediately respond to follow-up questions on whether the incident involved ransomware, which locks computers so hackers can demand a fee.
Health care providers across the US have suffered numerous ransomware attacks in recent years, some of which have disrupted patient care and cost health providers millions, if not billions, of dollars.
A February ransomware attack on a subsidiary of health care giant UnitedHealth Group caused billing disruptions at pharmacies across the US and threatened to put some health providers out of business.
