McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Grand Blanc, MI, is currently investigating a major disruption impacting its phone and computer systems. The health system, which operates 13 hospitals and numerous other facilities across Michigan, has reported that the outage might be related to a ransomware attack. This potential breach has led to significant operational challenges, including the need to redirect ambulances to alternative facilities due to the loss of access to electronic medical records, which is crucial for patient care.
The disruption has prompted McLaren Health Care to implement downtime procedures to mitigate the impact on patient services. Some non-emergent and elective procedures may be rescheduled as a precaution, but patients are advised to attend their appointments unless contacted by hospital staff with further instructions. The inability to access computer systems has affected the staff’s ability to retrieve patient information, necessitating additional measures to ensure continuity of care during the outage.
Patients are being asked to bring important documents to their appointments, including a list of current medications, allergy information, printed physician orders for imaging studies and treatments, and recent lab results. Despite the widespread system disruptions, the McLaren Health Care patient portal and the Karmanos patient portal remain operational, allowing patients to access some of their health information during this period.
McLaren Health Care has issued a formal apology to both patients and staff for the inconvenience caused by the disruption. The organization is actively working to restore full functionality to its affected systems but is currently unable to provide a specific timeline for when normal operations will resume. The incident highlights the increasing threat of cyberattacks targeting healthcare systems and the critical need for robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive patient information and ensure operational resilience.
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