The largest Catholic hospital organization in the U.S.A. suffered a significant cybersecurity attack, which was detrimental to its system and a set back for patients.
The Catholic, Ascension Health formed Ascension in 2012 to further its Mission of serving all persons especially those living in poverty and who are struggling the most, and to deliver compassionate, personalized care and lead healthcare transformation in the United States. Restructured as Ascension, they try to meet the evolving needs of the people and communities they serve in the rapidly changing healthcare environment. Today, they continue an 800-year legacy and promise set forth by their original sponsor organizations to provide faith-based healthcare to those in need.
Cybersecurity Event Update
For updates, please visit about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event
On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cybersecurity event. At this time we continue to investigate the situation. We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts. Access to some systems have been interrupted as this process continues.
Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption.
We have engaged Mandiant, a third party expert, to assist in the investigation and remediation process, and we have notified the appropriate authorities. Together, we are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation. Should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines.
We are reaching out to our business partners to ensure they are aware of the situation so they can take appropriate steps to safeguard their systems. We encourage all business partners to coordinate with the Ascension Technology partners to address any specific questions.
This is an ongoing situation and we will provide updates on our website as we learn more.
Systems that are currently unavailable include our electronic health records system, MyChart (which enables patients to view their medical records and communicate with their providers), some phone systems, and various systems utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications. We have implemented established protocols and procedures to address these particular system disruptions in order to continue to provide safe care to patients. Out of an abundance of caution, however, some non-emergent elective procedures, tests and appointments have been temporarily paused while we work to bring systems back online. Our teams are working directly with any patient whose appointment or procedure will need to be rescheduled. We understand the frustration this may cause and sincerely regret any inconvenience to our patients.
1999: Daughters of Charity National Health System and Sisters of St. Joseph Health System form Ascension Health
Catholic History of the Organization:
Ascension is one of the nation’s leading non-profit and Catholic health systems, with a Mission of delivering compassionate, personalized care to all with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In FY2023, Ascension provided $2.2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Ascension includes approximately 134,000 associates, 35,000 affiliated providers and 140 hospitals, serving communities in 19 states and the District of Columbia.1999: Daughters of Charity National Health System and Sisters of St. Joseph Health System form Ascension Health
In 2010, our sponsors recognized Ascension Health as a ministry of the Catholic Church transcending individual sponsoring organizations and determined a non-congregational sponsorship model would strengthen our ministry.
In 2011 the Vatican approved creation of a non-congregational public juridic person (PJP) to serve as the sole Sponsor of Ascension Health, which transitioned to become the Sponsor of Ascension, the new parent organization created in 2012.
In 2011 the Vatican approved creation of a non-congregational public juridic person (PJP) to serve as the sole Sponsor of Ascension Health, which transitioned to become the Sponsor of Ascension, the new parent organization created in 2012.
Source: https://about.ascension.org/en/about-us
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