Under the health system, a third party unauthorized access to CommonSpirit Health’s infrastructure between September 16 and October 3, 2022, exposed files with protected data from hospitals and the clinic of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
WHY IT IMPORTANT
CommonSpirit sent out a letter today informing affected individuals that their name, address, phone number(s), date of birth, and unique identifiers are not their medical record numbers or insurance IDs. may have been exposed.
While its review of these files is ongoing, CommonSpirit has determined that some of this data includes the personal information of individuals who may have received services in the past, or family members or care of those individuals, from Franciscan Medical Group and/or Franciscan Health in Washington state,” CommonSpirit officials said in the statement.
While the review of these files is ongoing, the breach affected protected data involving several hospitals that are now part of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, owned by the US-based CommonSpirit Chicago. Those hospitals are:
- Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma.
- St. Hospital. Francis in Federal Way.
- St. Hospital. Elizabeth in Enumclaw.
- St. Hospital. Clare in Lakewood.
- St. Hospital. Anthony in Gig Harbor.
- St. Hospital. Anne, formerly Highline Hospital, in Burien.
- Medical Center St. Michael’s Hospital, formerly Harrison Hospital, in Bremerton and Silverdale.
TREND TO BIGGER
A major ransomware attack on CommonSpirit Health announced in October disrupted medical operations across several states for nearly two weeks as the company worked to get its electronic health record system back up and running. move again.
According to a local report, the breach also affected hospitals at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, taking patient portal information and scheduling systems offline.
Earlier this month, CommonSpirit appointed Daniel Barchi as its new chief information officer. Barchi previously served as CIO at both Yale New Haven Health Systems and Yale Medical School, where he led the integration of EHR and established a cybersecurity operations center.
ON PROFILE
“Once the ransomware attack was discovered, CommonSpirit quickly mobilized to secure its systems, prevent problems, initiate investigations, and maintain continuity of care,” health system officials said. said.
Andrea Fox is the senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS.
