Hospital CEOs hold 1st news conference since Oct. 23 attack
Jennifer La Grassa · CBC News
Most (maybe all) were public healthcare. I wonder if Private hospital owners ever pay hackers to sabotage…
They honestly don’t need to. Knowing what I know from friends who work on the healthcare IT systems, the shit has been totally devastatingly out of date in so many ways.
Part of it is planned obsolescence, where you have a perfectly good MRI machine that only works on Windows 95 and isn’t airgapped from the rest of the network. Part of it is just skimping on IT costs, but their security has been Swiss Cheese for a long time.
That’s awful
I mean hospitals in Ontario are all privately run with independent board of directors. The biggest thing we have set up is the “nonprofit” status they all have to have, and the OHIP/single payer setup.
Beyond that, these hospitals that were hit were all “public”. Friend works at the cancer screening for SW Ontario and they’ve all been back to hand charting and filing. Tons of stuff is falling through the gaps, and they’ve been told to expect it to last to the new year.
Oof. That sucks. i thought ontario hospitals ( public ones) were publically funded for operating costs, regardless of OHIP payments for patient billing
I mean there’s hundreds to thousands of grants and other ways the govt pays the hospital as well, it’s not just OHIP funded but that’s a large part.
The Daixin ransomware group is despicable and I hope they get what they deserve.
Slow death in a hospital unable to treat their condition because it’s been disabled by ransomware?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For the first time, top leadership from the five southwestern Ontario hospitals hit by a ransomware attack answered questions from the media — acknowledging the significant impact the incident has had on care, as well as the large amount of stolen data.
The hospital CEOs also stood behind IT provider TransForm, saying they are “confident” the group is working hard to get systems back online, with a priority on clinical services.
CEO Paula Reaume-Zimmer said urgent and emergency cases have been prioritized, and as a result, their diagnostic imaging department has had to cancel more than 3,500 appointments, causing a “significant and growing backlog.”
Kristin Kennedy, CEO of Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington, said the biggest impact has been on their diagnostic imaging, with ultrasounds, CT scans and mammograms having to be rescheduled.
When asked why CEOs waited four weeks to speak about the situation, as well as why they haven’t been more forthcoming with answering questions, Marra of Hôtel-Dieu Grace said he believes the hospitals have been very transparent.
In addition to several news releases, Marra said “our communication has been with our people, our patients, working with the privacy commissioner, having town halls, meeting with our staff one on one on the units, issuing letters and notices.”
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