Less than a year after its EHR system went down, Washington, D.C.-area health system MedStar Health has reportedly suffered a computer "virus" that has knocked out its system -- and the FBI is investigating.
The Washington Post reports that patients at MedStar outlets "say they are being turned away" due to a problem with its electronic health records (EHR) system.
"Networks temporarily shut down to prevent virus spread," MedStar tweeted yesterday (it has not tweeted again as of this writing). "We have no evidence of compromised information. All facilities remain open." Nonetheless various press outlets, including USA Today, report that the FBI is investigating the situation, raising suspicions that MedStar may have been hacked or even the victim of a ransomware attack (subscription).
Local news station WTOP reports Medstar spokeswoman Ann Nickels "couldn’t say whether it was a ransomware attack ... but when asked whether hackers demanded payment, Nickles said, 'I don’t have an answer to that.'"
As Part B News reported (subscription) at the time, MedStar urgent care clinics went offline on April 6 and 7, 2015, due to what MedStar told PBN was a "system crash."
MedStar Health has 10 hospitals and multiple outpatient facilities in the D.C. area and claims to employ 30,000 associates and work with 6,000 affiliated physicians.