In about two weeks, I am scheduled to have a cardiac ablation to address a long-standing arrhythmia. I was feeling pretty good about this — after all, the procedure is safe at my age and is known to have a very high success rate — until I scanned my Twitter feed yesterday.
It was then that I found out that what was probably a ransomware virus had forced a medical data shutdown at Washington, D.C.-based MedStar Health. And while the community hospital where my procedure will be done is not part of the MedStar network, the cardiac electrophysiologist who will perform the ablation is affiliated with the chain.
During my pre-procedure visit with the doctor, a very pleasant guy who made me feel very safe, we devolved to talking shop about EMR issues after the clinical discussion was over. At the time he shared that his practice ran on GE Centricity which, he understandably complained, was not interoperable with the Epic system at one community chain, MedStar’s enterprise system or even the imaging platforms he uses. Under those circumstances, it’s hard to imagine that my data was affected by this breach. But as you can imagine, I still wonder what’s up.
While there’s been no official public statement saying this virus was part of a ransomware attack, some form of virus has definitely wreaked havoc at MedStar, according to a report by the Washington Post. (As a side note, it’s worth pointing out that if this is a ransomware attack, health system officials have done an admirable job of keeping the amount demanded for data return out of the press. However, some users have commented about ransomware on their individual computers.)
As the news report notes, MedStar has soldiered on in the face of the attack, keeping all of its clinical facilities open. However, a hospital spokesperson told the newspaper that the chain has decided to take down all system interfaces to prevent the spread of the virus. And as has happened with other hospital ransomware incursions, staffers have had to revert to using paper-based records.
And here’s where it might affect me personally. Even though my procedure is being done at a non-MedStar hospital, it’s possible that the virus driven delay in appointments and surgeries will affect my doctor, which could of course affect me.
Meanwhile, imagine how the employees at MedStar facilities feel: “Even the lowest-level staff can’t communicate with anyone. You can’t schedule patients, you can’t access records, you can’t do anything,” an anonymous staffer told the Post. Even if such a breach had little impact on patients, it’s obviously bad for employee morale. And that can’t be good for me either.
Again, it’s possible I’m in the clear, but the fact that the FUD surrounding this episode affects even a trained observer like myself plays right into the virus makers’ hands. Now, so far I haven’t dignified the attack by calling the doctor’s office to ask how it will affect me, but if I keep reading about problems with MedStar systems I’ll have to follow up soon.
Worse, when I’m being anesthetized for the procedure next month, I know I’ll be wondering when the next virus will hit.
