Patients and relatives express concern when MercyOne handles IT breaches
Parts of MercyOne’s computer system are currently offline. On Monday, MercyOne issued a statement to KCCI regarding an “IT security incident,” which caused them to take some of their systems offline.” MercyOne Central Iowa continues to use CommonSpirit Health technology as we prepare to integrate into Trinity Health. CommonSpirit is handling an IT security incident affecting some of our facilities. As a safety precaution, we have taken certain IT systems offline, which may include electronic health record (EHR) systems and other systems. The facilities are following existing protocols for system outages and are taking steps to minimize disruption. ”[ads1]; On Wednesday, patients and their families at MercyOne Medical Center in West Des Moines said they are watching their caregivers keep paper records. On Wednesday, MercyOne told KCCI that it is classifying the incident as an “IT outage,” MercyOne shared the following statement: “MercyOne Central Iowa continues to use established downtime procedure res due to the IT outage. Care teams are in constant communication with each other and document care through paper records. Our team is committed to ensuring safe, quality treatment for all patients. We continue to work with CommonSpirit around the clock to resolve the IT system downtime MercyOne Central Iowa is experiencing along with other CommonSpirit locations. We will continue to share updates as we learn more information from CommonSpirit.”KCCI spoke with patients and their families who shared their concerns about the current procedures MercyOne follows.” They said the computers are down. And I thought ‘well, computers crash’. But then they said they were down for 98 hours, and I thought, ‘well, that’s a big deal,'” Mollie Topf said. Topf’s mother is in the hospital for treatment of Parkinson’s disease.” With my mother, she is older, she has a history of health problems, and so it is very important for a caregiver to look at the history of health problems and to know what medicine she has reactions to, what medicine is good for her, so when they can’t look at that story in a computer that concerns me,” Topf said. Tierra Mayberry also has concerns. Her sister is being treated for pneumonia at MercyOne West. Mayberry says she knows the doctors and nurses are doing everything they can, but she is worried that computer problems might prevent them from seeing their sister’s medical history.”If they can’t get to her charts, how would they know what medications, if there was a medication change, or even get tests to see what actually was wrong with her?” Mayberry said. “Where was the contingency plan when they decided it was going digital?” Previous coverage:
Parts of MercyOne’s computer system are currently offline.
On Monday, MercyOne issued a statement to KCCI regarding an “IT security incident,” which caused them to take some of their systems offline.
“MercyOne Central Iowa continues to use CommonSpirit Health technology as we prepare to integrate into Trinity Health. CommonSpirit is managing an IT security incident, which is affecting some of our facilities. As a precaution, we have taken certain IT systems offline, which may include electronic health record (EHR) systems and other systems. Our facilities follow existing protocols for system outages and take steps to minimize the disruption.”
On Wednesday, patients and their families at MercyOne Medical Center in West Des Moines say they are watching their caregivers keep paper records.
On Wednesday, MercyOne told KCCI that it is classifying the incident as an “IT breach”
MercyOne shared the following statement:
“MercyOne Central Iowa continues to use established downtime procedures due to the IT breach. Care teams are in constant communication with each other and document care through paper records. Our team is committed to ensuring safe, quality care for all patients. We continue to work with CommonSpirit around the clock to address the IT system downtime that MercyOne Central Iowa is experiencing along with other CommonSpirit locations. We will continue to share updates as we learn more information from CommonSpirit.”
KCCI spoke with patients and their families who shared their concerns about the current procedures MercyOne follows.
“They said the computers are down. And I thought, ‘well, computers are going down.’ But then they said they were down for 98 hours, and I thought, ‘well, that’s a big deal,'” Mollie Topf said.
Topf’s mother is in hospital for treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
“With my mom, she’s older, she has a history of health problems, and so it’s very important for a caregiver to look at the history of health problems and to know what medicine she’s responding to, what medicine is good for her, so when they can’t look at that story in a computer that concerns me,” Topf said.
Tierra Mayberry also has concerns. Her sister is being treated for pneumonia at MercyOne West. Mayberry says she knows doctors and nurses are doing everything they can, but she’s worried computer problems could prevent them from seeing her sister’s medical history.
“If they can’t get to her charts, how would they know what medications, if there was a medication change, or even get tests to see what was actually wrong with her?” Mayberry said. “Where was the contingency plan when they decided to go digital?”
Previous coverage:
