“Our offices haven’t missed a beat”: Lourdes provides update after cyber attack

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) — Despite a cyber attack, Guthrie Lourdes Hospital says it’s still caring for over 2 thousand patients a day, albeit with paper records rather than computers.

Guthrie leadership held a news conference today to update the media on the status of the hack. On May 8, the former owner of Lourdes, Ascension was the victim of a ransomware attack that has crippled its IT systems.

Although Guthrie acquired Lourdes and its affiliated offices at the beginning of February, it had not yet migrated all of the Lourdes IT infrastructure over to the Guthrie system. As a result, providers cannot access patients electronic medical records.

However, it is using the HealtheConnections health information exchange to find backup EMR. Guthrie Lourdes President Kathy Connerton says employees are working around the clock, including transitioning back to old school paper documents, to provide safe and effective care for their patients.

“If you have an upcoming appointment with your doctor, we strongly urge you to continue that appointment as scheduled. Our dedicated health professionals are here to provide you with the care that you need. And, as I mentioned earlier, our offices have not missed a beat. They are continuing to see full schedules and will be available to you,” Connerton said.

“I’m very proud of the fact that the Guthrie legacy systems recognized this so quickly and were able to prevent this from proliferating. All of our other facilities are standard ways of dealing with the electronic medical record,” CEO of Guthrie Clinic Dr. Ed Sabanegh added.

Guthrie Lourdes Pharmacies still cannot fill new prescriptions, but Guthrie locations in Cortland and Corning are helping to do so and driving the medications to Binghamton. The patient portal is down, as is billing. However, some computer platforms had been migrated to Guthrie systems, including employee payroll and supplies procurement.

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Guthrie Lourdes Orthopedic, Dental and Mental Health clinics were not impacted; and individual equipment used to treat patients such as cardiac monitors and fetal monitors continue to work. And the Emergency Department is no longer on diversion as of yesterday, meaning ambulances can resume bringing patients to the hospital.

Two outpatient labs, at the hospital and on Shippers Road in Vestal, will reopen on Monday, May 20.

“Bad actors will try to take advantage of times like this. Uncertainty brings about an option to scam or defraud through phone calls or emails or text. We’ve heard of incidences of this where people are getting phony calls for people about their health or their insurance or prescriptions,” Connerton said.

Sabanegh says Ascension has been cooperative but has not shared how much ransom is being demanded not whether Ascension plans to pay it.

He says Guthrie isn’t counting on a quick fix so it’s sped up the process of implementing its own EMR system across the Lourdes locations. Lourdes employees still cannot access voice mails, however a phone line has been established where patients can call with questions and leave a message.

That number is 798-5320.

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