Virginia Mason works to determine how cyberattack happened

The company that operates the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Hospitals has confirmed it was a cyberattack that took down their online patient portal scheduling system last week.

It all stemmed from a problem originating with the parent company, CommonSpirit Health.

Security breach affecting Virginia Mason Franciscan Health staff, patients

In Western Washington, many Virginia Mason Franciscan Health patients who had surgeries and other appointments found they had been canceled or rescheduled.

There were other reports online scheduling was down, and administrators used pen and paper to schedule and document medical procedures.

A statement from CommonSpirit says they immediately took steps to protect their systems after the ransomware attack.

“Systems serving Virginia Mason Medical Center have had minimal impacts on operations by this incident. For the other parts of our health system that have seen impacts on operations, we are working diligently every day to bring systems online and restore full functionality as quickly and safely as possible,” the statement said.

CommonSpirit says it continues a thorough forensics investigation and review of its systems and will also “seek to determine if there are any data impacts as part of the process.”

They have brought in cybersecurity specialists and informed law enforcement about the cyberattack.

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