Worldwide CrowdStrike update failure hits local hospitals, health-care providers

By Cynthia Prairie
©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

An attempt by international computer-security firm CrowdStrike to update Windows security software that took down computers and mobile devices around the world on Friday, July 19, including at airports and banks across the United States, also affected some area hospitals and medical personal, forcing them to alter their patient intake process or send some emergency room patients elsewhere.

On Monday, July 22, Michael Randzio, chief of the Chester Ambulance Service, told The Telegraph that his staff lost access to patient care reports for about 12 hours on that previous Friday, which meant a longer time spent on paperwork. One EMS crew, he said, had to be diverted from Springfield Hospital to Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center in Windsor. He added that the diversion added 30 minutes one-way to the transport. He also noted that at this point, the Chester Ambulance Service has just a single medical vehicle and “that time lost could be problematic if we had another call.” A second ambulance will be added to the service in a couple months, he said.

Andrea Seaton, senior director of Development, Marketing & Community Relations at Grace Cottage Family Health and Hospital in Townshend, said the Crowdstrike incident barely touched her hospital and the emergency room did not have to divert ambulances to other facilities. “We don’t do surgeries and we have reverted to paper before in an emergency,” she said, adding, however, the facility’s transcription program, which translates the spoken word into writing, was knocked out, which meant that doctors had to write down medical notes by hand.

According to Anna Smith, vice president for marketing and development at Springfield Hospital, once the breach was detected, the hospital immediately moved to “paper-based records” and used a “manual patient status/tracking board.” The hospital then checked the capacity at the Emergency Department and in-patient wards, and found that there was a surge of patients coming into the ED.  “Due to the high patient census,” Smith wrote in an email, the leadership team “placed the hospital on diversion.”

The hospital then notified the state “Emergency Preparedness Division and local ambulance organizations to divert patients to alternative facilities for safety reasons.” Smith added that Springfield Hospital regained the use of the Emergency Medical Records system “early the next morning and began updating electronic records appropriately.“

CNN reported last week that this largest IT outage in history is expected to “cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses, according to one insurer’s analysis of the incident.”