CommonSpirit Health, Flaget Hospital, recovering from randsomware attack

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022 — CommonSpirit, the parent company of the CHI St. Joseph Health System and CHI Flaget Memorial Hospital, confirmed Wednesday that the company is working to recover from a ransomware cyberattack that has affected many of its hospitals across several states during the past two weeks — including Flaget Memorial Hospital

The attack has shut down electronic health records and forced cancellations of appointments and surgeries at a number of affected CHI hospitals and facilities.

Lexington-based CHI St. Joseph Health was one of several health systems in eight states that posted warnings on its website that it was experiencing IT issues.

The attack left the affected hospitals scrambling to maintain patient care without, in many cases, access to electronic patient records.

While no official confirmation has surfaced from Flaget Memorial Hospital, employees have privately reported to the Gazette that the ransomware attack has impacted the operation of Epic, the patient record software, forcing recordkeeping tasks back to paper charts.

NBC News first reported the incident was a ransomware attack Friday, Oct. 7th, citing an unnamed source.

According to a CommonSpirit Health press release issued Wednesday, “we are working diligently every day to bring systems online and restore full functionality as quickly and safely as possible.”

Upon discovering the ransomware attack, “we took immediate steps to protect our systems, contain the incident, begin an investigation, and ensure continuity of care.”

A ransomware attack is when attackers gain access to and encrypt systems, demanding ransom from organizations in exchange for an encryption key.

CommonSpirit operates 142 hospitals and 2,200 care sites in 21 states.

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