A network outage at BSA Health System in Amarillo that began last week is tied to an apparent ransomware attack, the healthcare system said, leading to diverting of some EMS patients for emergency care during the outage until the incident is fully resolved.
“On November 23, we became aware of a network outage due to a potential security incident that is affecting BSA Health System,” the healthcare system said in a Saturday update, noting that the system was following established downtime paper protocols during the incident. “As always, the care and safety of our patients remains our highest priority. While there have been no adverse impacts to patient care, we have asked our local EMS system to divert patients in need of emergency care to other area facilities while we address our systems issues.”
BSA said its primary focus was ensuring critically ill patients “have immediate access to the most appropriate level of care.” The system did not have additional updates of the incident as of Monday, but said it would continue to provide more details, based on the developing situation.
According to a news release issued Monday from BSA’s parent company, Ardent Health Services, the company became aware of the “information technology cybersecurity incident” on Thanksgiving morning, “which has since been determined to be a ransomware attack.” The company said its technology team immediately began working to understand the event, safeguard data, and regain functionality, and it took its entire network offline, suspending all user access to its information technology applications, including corporate servers, Epic software, internet and clinical programs across the company.
Including BSA, Ardent owns and operates 30 hospitals and more than 200 care sites, with more than 1,300 aligned providers in Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Idaho and Kansas.
“Ardent has reported this event to law enforcement and retained third-party forensic and threat intelligence advisors,” the news release states. “In addition to electronic protection procedures already in place, Ardent has also implemented additional information technology security protocols and is working with specialist cybersecurity partners to restore its information technology operations and capabilities as quickly as possible. At this time, we cannot confirm the extent of any patient health or financial data that has been compromised.”
Ardent said that, in an abundance of caution, its facilities are rescheduling some non-emergent, elective procedures and are diverting some emergency room patients to other area hospitals until systems are back online. During the temporary disruption of some operations, Ardent said “patient care continues to be delivered safely and effectively in its hospitals, emergency rooms, and clinics.”
Ardent said the investigation and restoration of access to electronic medical records and other clinical systems is ongoing, and it is still determining the full impact of this event.
Additional information is available at www.ardenthealth.com/datasecurityupdate.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: BSA Health System offline after cybersecurity attack
