As a result of a computer virus, hospitals across Northeastern Ontario have been affected.
In our region, 21 of the 24 Northeastern Ontario hospitals have seen their main electronic medical record system, Meditech, put on downtime as a preventative measure. The electronic medical record system for cancer programs in 12 hospitals, Mosaiq, is also on downtime.
Kim McElroy, Manager, Communications & Volunteer Department at the North Bay Regional Health Centre (NBRHC) gives an update on patients affiliated with Health Sciences North that have been impacted by the technical difficulties at Health Sciences North (HSN) this week.
“NBRHC has the largest satellite chemotherapy clinic of the North East Cancer Centre at HSN. As a result of the technical difficulties, NBRHC’s satellite chemotherapy clinic was cancelled Wednesday, yesterday and today. To minimize the impact on our patients, arrangements have been made to reschedule these patients for treatment this weekend,” says McElroy.
“NBRHC and HSN have a strong partnership and together we are working to ensure we can continue to provide the best care to our patients,” says McElroy, adding, “At this time, no other clinical areas of NBRHC have been impacted. All programs and services remain open to our community.”
Communication Specialist for Health Sciences North in Sudbury Jason Turnbull says, “We have no evidence to suggest that privacy of patient information has been breached,” but measures have been taken to protect crucial medical systems and some patients have had treatment sessions cancelled.
At HSN, about 75 per cent of the systems are impacted. HSN is working to begin restoring critical systems today and is planning to reschedule cancelled chemotherapy and radiation treatments this weekend.
Turnbull says, “Since Wednesday morning, all 24 Northeastern Ontario hospitals have been impacted by IT challenges, caused by a zero-day virus, as in a virus with no previous patches or solutions. As a preventive measure, all systems were put on downtime, successfully avoiding the dissemination of the virus.”
