McLaren Health Care, which operates 13 hospitals in Michigan, has confirmed a criminal cyberattack that is affecting some patient services. McLaren hospitals are in Pontiac, Mount Clemens, Mt. Pleasant and other locations around the state.
The health care company also operates a facility near Clarkston that has an emergency department, outpatient surgery center and more. The attack occurred Tuesday, Aug. 6, according to a post on McLaren’s Facebook page on Wednesday, Aug.
7. “Our information technology team continues to work with external cyber security experts to analyze the nature of the attack and mitigate the impacts of the threat actors. At this time, we have not determined if any patient or employee data was compromised,” the post said.
McLaren said its hospitals and outpatient facilities are largely operational. But while it has limited access to its systems, some non-emergency appointments, tests and treatments are being rescheduled. McLaren said it is also working with vendors and insurance companies to make sure the supply chain is not impacted and insurance authorizations are processed.
McLaren said patients with scheduled appointments should plan to attend unless they are contacted. Patients should bring the following to their appointments: – A list of current medications or prescription bottles – Printed physician orders for imaging studies or treatments – Printed results of recent lab tests available in the patient portals – A list of allergies. McLaren said it could not estimate when all systems would be back to normal.
Earlier this year, a similar attack affected patient services at Ascension hospitals around the country. Ascension, which operates numerous hospitals in southeast Michigan, reported the attack in early May. It took about two months before all system issues were resolved.
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