Health system McLaren Health Care based in Grand Blanc, MI manages 13 hospitals in Michigan and several doctor offices, ambulatory surgery centers, and other patient care facilities in the state. It reported an investigation of an outage impacting its telephone and computer network. The reason for the problem is not yet confirmed, though it is likely that the disruption is due to a ransomware attack. There were unconfirmed reports that ambulances were redirected to other facilities, a common procedure whenever electronic medical records are inaccessible.
A few non-emergent or elective processes could be rescheduled as a safety precaution; nevertheless, the patients were instructed to keep their appointed visits except if they got calls from hospital staff and asked to change consultation visits. With no computer network access, staff could not access patient data, therefore downtime processes are enforced.
Patients were told before coming to their appointments that they needed to bring with them their list of present prescription drugs, their list of allergies if any, their empty prescription containers, printed doctor orders for imaging tests and treatments, and printed lab test results. Although some websites were disrupted, the McLaren Health Care patient site and the Karmanos patient portal seem to work properly.
McLaren Health Care expressed its sincere apologies to the patients and health system team members. It asked the concerned parties to be patient regarding the disappointing situation. Rest assured, its caregivers and support groups are working diligently to bring the needed care to the communities. At this point of the investigation, McLaren Health Care still cannot give an exact schedule for the restoration of the affected systems. The health system may need to provide employee HIPAA training to prepare for other attacks in the future and avoid the trouble caused by data breaches.
A Reddit user has published a copy of the Inc Ransom group’s ransom note, however, it was unable to confirm the validity of the note. The sites of the ransomware gang are presently not available. This is not McLaren Health Care’s first ransomware attack. Last year, the AlphV ransomware group targeted the health system in its ransomware attack.
