Yet as patients face missed appointments, testing and treatments, they worry about the impact to their health the longer this outage lasts.
Yellow Springs resident Havilah McGinnis was awaiting radiation treatment for a brain tumor when the cyberattack occurred.
McGinnis’ canceled appointment was her final radiation treatment. She’s not sure what comes next.
“I know that they’re trying to contact people and doing the best they can in a really terrible circumstance,” she said. “But without any information, it’s really hard to know if I’m going to get contacted at all.”
Outage caused by ransomware
The hospital system’s ongoing technology outage followed a cybersecurity incident last Tuesday, resulting from unauthorized access to its network.
John Weimer, senior vice president and leader for Incident Command at Kettering Health, said they did not have any direct contact with the perpetrator and did not pay any ransom.
“At this time, my understanding is we have not received a request, nor have we paid anything,” Weimer said. “We shut down the system to isolate it, so that’s immediately what we did, and then we worked with our forensic teams to sequester that so that we can bring systems back online.”
There were some pop-up messages that included some demands on some of Kettering Health’s computers, he said, but the perpetrators have had no direct conversation with them.
“I know there are lots of questions. We just do not have the answers for everything,” Weimer said. “Our focus really has been, how do we open back up and how do we ensure that we continue to care for our patients and bring systems back up.”
Procedures happening on ‘case-by-case’ basis
Kettering Health said patients with appointments should still go to those appointments unless they have been contacted by phone to reschedule.
“Procedures are being evaluated on a case-by-case basis based upon collaborative decision-making between care teams, with safety as our highest priority,” Kettering Health said.
Its offices operating on alternate procedures in this situation and seeing patients when possible.
Medical staff at Kettering Health tell the Dayton Daily News that physicians’ ability to fill prescriptions and do medical imaging is severely limited, they have no access to patients’ medical records, and some diagnoses and treatments are suspended. They say doctors are giving out their personal cell phone numbers to patients because phone lines are down.
For current patients who need a prescription refilled, Kettering Health said to bring your empty prescription bottle to your doctor’s office and the Kettering Health team will assist you.
Cancer treatments on pause
After McGinnis’ optometrist last year noticed her vision had declined in her right eye, a series of other tests and appointments discovered the brain tumor. McGinnis had surgery in February and started six weeks of radiation treatment.
She worries that missing that treatment could impact her overall wellness.
When asked if she had any concerns with the cyberattack’s impact on her personal records, McGinnis said, “I’ve been so concerned about my health that I haven’t even had room to panic about that.”
“It’s just hard to know what that even means in terms of when and if I will be able to resolve this,” she said.
Mary Burns of Centerville recently had a follow-up scan related to lung cancer. Information from that appointment was appearing in her MyChart as late as last Monday, but her main providers at Ohio State University’s medical center cannot access it.
Burns said she’s been very pleased with care she has received through Kettering Health, but she’s concerned with her personal information being leaked. She’s not sure how long she and others could be at risk.
“And I’m really concerned about people that actually had procedures scheduled and had to reschedule,” Burns said. “That’s nerve-wracking.”
‘I can’t use my arm’
Patients are continuing to have difficulty getting in touch with their doctors.
“My arm is in a sling, and I can’t get my doctor,” said Renee Jackson of Springfield. “...This is really a bad situation for them and also really bad for the patients.”
Jackson needs an orthopedic surgeon for a serious shoulder injury and can’t get in touch with her doctor’s office, she said.
“The emergency department did see me,” Jackson said.
She went to the ER before the cyberattack happened, but her shoulder needs an MRI, she said.
“I can’t use my arm,” Jackson said. “Not a good situation, and the surgeon that I need is there in the Kettering (Health) system.”
Leah Day, 76, of West Carrollton showed up to her local hospital early Wednesday for an appointment to get an endoscopic ultrasound, which she needs for doctors to determine how to proceed with cancer treatment.
After checking in and waiting in the lobby, a receptionist told her she would not be having her procedure that day.
“I have an appointment now,” Day said. “But we’ll see how that goes. The hospital could be closed or not closed, not doing any surgeries.”
But also concerning to Day is the threat to her personal security. She’s a Medicare patient and pays for her deductibles online.
“I just hope nothing goes wrong with anyone stealing my information in any way. For any others, too,” she said.
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.
Kettering Health launches temporary clinical phone line
Kettering Health launched support help lines for Kettering Health Medical Group patients to call with urgent medical questions.
For patients with urgent health questions, you can use the following phone numbers:
- For urgent medical concerns after hours, weekends and holidays, call MatchMD at 1-866-257-5363.
- For urgent medical questions Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, call (937) 600-6879.
To ensure these phone lines are available for patients who need it, Kettering Health is asking that people do not call for questions about the technology outage, information or data security concerns, or scheduling for non-urgent appointments.
Women’s Health patients experiencing urgent needs after-hours can find updated OB-GYN practice phone numbers at ketteringhealth.org/womens-health-after-hours-information.
For the latest updates about the outage, please visit: ketteringhealth.org/system-wide-technology-outage
