Almost two weeks after a cybersecurity incident, Ross Memorial Hospital (RMH) in Lindsay is still dealing with the aftermath.
“Significant progress has been made in a short period of time due to RMH team members’ hard work, and with the support of local and regional partners, and third-party cybersecurity experts,” reads a media release from the hospital issued on Friday (February 17).
“Given the complexity of the cybersecurity incident and its effects across the IT environment, RMH anticipates that it will be a number of weeks before operations return to normal.”
On the evening of February 5, the hospital declared a “code grey” after staff reported difficulties accessing electronic systems and the hospital’s information technology team identified unusual activity in the systems. At Ontario hospitals, a code grey is initiated after the loss of a critical system such as a utility or information technology (for example, due to ransomeware) that results in the potential loss of use of hospital facilities.
As a result of the cybersecurity incident, multiple electronic systems at Ross Memorial Hospital went offline including email and the Epic electronic medical records system. Haliburton Highlands Health Services also issued a code grey, due to the integrated information technology system it shares with Ross Memorial Hospital, with some email accounts going offline.
Ross Memorial Hospital has already restored some of the affected systems and continues to work to bring all the affected systems back online. There continue to be delays in retrieving diagnostic imaging results, leading to potentially longer wait times for patients.”
While the hospital works to address the delays, patients with less urgent conditions are encouraged to consider alternate options for care, such as their primary health care provider, pharmacist, after-hours clinic, virtual care, or by calling Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0007.
After-hours clinics can often treat non-urgent and minor illnesses and ailments, such as earaches, sore throats or prescription refills.
The hospital says it is unable to provide a timeline for when the code grey will be lifted, but will continue provide updates on its website at rmh.org and via the hospital’s social media channels.
