Patients should also come to their scheduled appointments or surgeries unless one of Kettering Health’s clinical teams calls to reschedule.
Kettering Health administrators said the May 20 cyberattack on their tech system caused wide-spread outage and was caused a ransomware, though they said they did not have any direct contact with the perpetrator and did not pay any ransom.
Kettering Health’s emergency rooms, on-demand care sites and urgent cares continue to be open during this outage.
Kettering Health was recently able to get its radiation oncology technology back online, according to its social media, so they can return to seeing patients who are undergoing radiation therapy.
Returning to paper charting
As the tech outage continues, Kettering Health staff have returned to using paper charts instead of digital record keeping.
“One of our priorities here was to provide stability for our nursing staff,” Danielle Gambrel, a registered nurse at Kettering Health, said in a recent video on social media, explaining the hospital system’s standardized flow sheets process.
“We wanted to make it simple enough to where, if OB (obstetrics) came down, they could come down and know where to find the forms that they need for their unit,” said Gambrel, describing how the forms are laid out and ready to go for each department.
“By ensuring that our team has a consistent process to follow, we are empowering them to provide that highest level of care to our patients,” Gambrel said.
Kettering Health patients unable to access MyChart
As the hospital system creates work-arounds processes to continue seeing patients while still not having access to some of its technology and digital patient records, patients who are at different points in their treatments are continuing to wait for answers as they are still unable to access MyChart.
Multiple people have told this news outlet that they have still been unable to access MyChart, a patient portal to digital patient records, this week.
Patients who were on the brink of starting treatment processes for serious health conditions are also stuck waiting to find out when the system will be fixed and when they will be able to get in touch with the staff they need.
Denise McGrew of Sabina was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer after doctors discovered a tumor following a mammogram.
After getting a biopsy done, she was supposed to get scheduled with a surgeon, McGrew said, but she never heard from Kettering Health before its outage.
“They told me that I needed to have surgery to have it removed, and I was waiting on the surgeon’s office to call to schedule the appointment,” McGrew said.
When she didn’t hear from her doctor’s office, McGrew tried calling them, but her calls would not go through. As of early this week, McGrew also has not been able to access MyChart.
“I haven’t been able to contact anybody,” McGrew said.
Since she was not able to get scheduled with a doctor beforehand, McGrew is worried about how this may impact her health with this ongoing delay in care.
“I’m concerned that the longer I wait, that it’s going to get worse,” McGrew said. “I don’t know if it’s the type that will grow that quickly or not, but I just worry about the longer it takes me to get in and get seen and get it removed, that it’s going to grow and get bigger.”
Kettering Health recently launched a temporary clinical support phone line at 937-600-6879 for patients with urgent health questions. It will be staffed by nurses from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
For urgent medical needs after hours, on weekends and holidays, Kettering Health Medical Group patients can call MatchMD at 1-866-257-5363, but otherwise for urgent medical questions patients can call the temporary clinical support line.
For medical emergencies, patients are urged to go to the nearest emergency department.
Kettering Health has 14 area medical centers and more than 120 outpatient locations throughout Western Ohio, as well as Kettering Physician Network, which includes more than 700 board-certified providers.
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