Cybersecurity Event Update (2024)

Previous Media Statements

June 5, 2024 - 9:25am CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
June 5 - 9:25am CT
Ascension continues to work expeditiously alongside industry-leading cybersecurity experts in our efforts to safely restore systems across our network. Please know our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing patient care. Patients should continue to visit the regional updates portion of this webpage for the latest information on a state-by-state basis.
As we have previously communicated, restoring Electronic Health Record (EHR) access has been among the top priorities of our recovery process. We are encouraged to report positive developments in these efforts and can announce that we have successfully restored EHR access in our Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland, and Central Texas (Ascension Seton and Dell Children's hospitals) markets.
Based on what we have learned about this process to date, we are working toward completing EHR restoration across our entire ministry by the end of the week ending June 14.
As EHR is restored across the entirety of our networks, clinicians will be able to access patient records as they did prior to this incident. While these are promising developments in our recovery efforts, our investigation into this incident remains ongoing, along with the remediation of additional systems. This is a complex process, and it will still take time to complete.
Additionally, Ascension Rx retail, home delivery and specialty pharmacy sites are now open and able to meet your prescription needs. This means that healthcare providers are able to transmit prescriptions electronically and can send prescriptions to Ascension Rx pharmacies for their patients.
Finally, we again want to thank our patients and community for your support through this time and to our dedicated clinicians who continue to provide quality care.
June 4, 2024 - 6:00am CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
June 4 - 6:00am CT
Ascension continues to work expeditiously alongside industry-leading cybersecurity experts in our efforts to safely restore systems across our network. Please know our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing patient care. Patients should continue to visit the regional updates portion of this webpage for the latest information on a state-by-state basis.
As we have previously communicated, restoring Electronic Health Record (EHR) access has been among the top priorities of our recovery process. We are encouraged to report positive developments in these efforts and can announce that we have successfully restored EHR access in our Florida, Alabama and Austin markets.
See Also
Athenahealth Bill Pay
Based on what we have learned about this process to date, we are working toward completing EHR restoration across our entire ministry by the end of the week ending June 14.
As EHR is restored across the entirety of our networks, clinicians will be able to access patient records as they did prior to this incident. While these are promising developments in our recovery efforts, our investigation into this incident remains ongoing, along with the remediation of additional systems. This is a complex process, and it will still take time to complete.
Additionally, Ascension Rx retail, home delivery and specialty pharmacy sites are now open and able to meet your prescription needs. This means that healthcare providers are able to transmit prescriptions electronically and can send prescriptions to Ascension Rx pharmacies for their patients.
Finally, we again want to thank our patients and community for your support through this time and to our dedicated clinicians who continue to provide quality care.
May 29, 2024 - 6:25pm CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 29 - 6:25pm CT
Ascension continues to work around the clock with industry-leading cybersecurity experts to safely restore systems across our network. Please know our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing safe care. Patients should continue to monitor the regional updates portion of this webpage for the latest information on a state-by-state basis.
Restoring Electronic Health Record (EHR) access has been among the top priorities of our recovery process. Due to the hard work of our teams over the past several days, we have successfully restored EHR access in our first market and are actively progressing a plan to restore access across our network on a rolling basis.
We want to sincerely thank our patients and community for your support and to our dedicated clinicians who continue to provide quality care.
May 24, 2024 - 8:49am CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 24 - 8:49am CT
Ascension continues to work around the clock with industry-leading cybersecurity experts to safely restore operations across our network. We are hopeful that after the weekend, our patients and clinicians will see progress across our points of care. Many of our vendors and partners have also started the process of reconnecting to our network and resuming services with Ascension, which should help to accelerate our overall recovery.
Until that time, please know that our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing care. Patients should continue to monitor the regional updates portion of this webpage for the latest information on a state-by-state basis.
We also want to extend a sincere note of gratitude to our dedicated clinicians who are providing care under challenging circ*mstances. The compassion and resilience you have displayed throughout this event is truly remarkable and is emblematic of Ascension’s mission to improve the health of the individuals and communities we serve.
May 21, 2024 - 8:45am CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 21 - 8:45am CT
Ascension continues to work with industry-leading cybersecurity experts to investigate the recentransomware attack and to rebuild and restore our systems securely. While this process continues inearnest, our hospitals and facilities remain open and are providing care. Patients should continue tomonitor the regional updates portion of this webpage for the latest information on a state-by-state basis.
Today, we also kicked off a series of regular touchpoints with our critical partners and vendors in order toprovide them with important information to assist with restoring their connection to the Ascension network.As we make progress in both restoring operations and reconnecting our partners into the network, we willcontinue to relay both general and state-by-state updates on this page. Please check back regularly fornew information.
Thank you for your support as we continue to respond to this incident.
May 15, 2024 - 4:23pm CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 15 - 4:23pm CT
Ascension continues to make progress towards restoration and recovery following the recent ransomwareattack. We continue to work with industry leading forensic experts from Mandiant to conduct ourinvestigation into this attack and understand the root cause and how this incident occurred. In parallel, wehave brought in additional cybersecurity experts from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 and from CYPFER to helpsupplement our rebuild and restoration efforts. We are focused on getting systems back up and runningas safely and as quickly as possible. We are also working on reconnecting with our vendors with the helpof our recovery experts. Please be aware that it may still take some time to return to normal operations.
Our priority remains providing quality patient care and relaying up-to-date information when available aswe work through this recovery process. Please continue to refer to this website page along with theregional update pages for more information. We encourage anyone seeking information surrounding theincident or with questions about the operational status of Ascension facilities to visit this page for thelatest updates.
As we continue to progress in these recovery and restoration efforts, we want to express a sincere thankyou to our patients and community for your patience and support through this difficult time.
May 13, 2024 - 4:30pm CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 13 - 4:30pm CT
Ascension previously reported that it experienced a ransomware attack that has caused disruptions to patient care in its network. Our priority remains on providing safe patient care.Ascension, with the support of leading cybersecurity experts, worked around the clock overthe weekend to respond to the ransomware incident affecting our systems. We are focused on restoring systems safely. We are making progress, however, it will take time to return to normal operations. As systems and services come back online, we will share those updates so that our patients and communities can plan accordingly.We have established a dedicated website to share any updates we have across our system. We will be expanding the site this week to provide updates related to healthcare services as they relate to specific regions.
May 11, 2024 - 2:00pm CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
May 11 - 2:00pm CT
We continue to diligently investigate and address the recent ransomware incident, working closely with industry leading cybersecurity experts to assist in our investigation and restoration and recovery efforts. Additionally, we have notified law enforcement, as well as government partners including the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the American Hospital Association (AHA). We remain in close contact with the FBI and CISA, and we are sharing relevant threat intelligence with the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC) so that our industry partners and peers can take steps to protect themselves from similar incidents.
While our restoration work continues in earnest, our focus is on restoring systems as safely as possible. While we expect this process will take time to complete, we are making progress and systems are being restored in a coordinated manner at each of our care sites. We will continue to share updates on our recovery process.
May 9, 2024 - 5:30pm CT

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".
On May 8, Ascension detected unusual activity in our network systems. We have determined this is a cybersecurity incident. We are working around the clock with internal and external advisors to investigate, contain, and restore our systems following a thorough validation and screening process. Our investigation and restoration work will take time to complete, and we do not have a timeline for completion.
Safely caring for patients remains our highest priority as we navigate this cybersecurity incident. We are actively supporting our ministries as they continue to provide safe, patient care with established downtime protocols and procedures, in which our workforce is well trained. It is expected that we will be utilizing downtime procedures for some time. Patients should bring to their appointment notes on their symptoms and a list of current medications and prescription numbers or the prescription bottles so their care team can call in medication needs to pharmacies.
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.
Due to downtime procedures, several hospitals are currently on diversion for emergency medical services in order to ensure emergency cases are triaged immediately. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please contact 911 and your local emergency services will bring you to the nearest hospital emergency room.
We are beyond grateful for the hard work and dedication of our care teams across the system, and their continued commitment to our patients. We also thank our patients and our community for their continued support and patience during this time as we work through a diligent, time-intensive process to restore systems as quickly, and as safely, as possible. To ensure all patients, staff, and stakeholders are kept informed during this event, we will continue to post updated information on our website as it becomes available.
May 9, 2024

Cybersecurity Event Update
Note for Media: The statement below can be attributed "to an Ascension spokesperson".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.