MILWAUKEE — The Ascension Health cyberattack is spreading beyond the hospital walls and into pharmacies that are working to get patients the medications they need.
After nearly a week, patients and health care professionals are still struggling after the cyber security event at Ascension locations across Wisconsin and the country.
Since Wednesday last week, Ascension hospitals have been dealing with a cyberattack affecting electronic health records, MyChart, some phone lines and various systems tied to medical procedures and medications.
Ascension put out an update Monday evening to reiterate all off its Wisconsin hospitals, physician offices and care sites remained open and operational.
An Ascension spokesperson released a statement saying:
“Ascension previously reported that it experienced a ransomware attack that has caused disruptions to patient care in its network. Our priority remains on providing safe patient care.
"Ascension, with the support of leading cybersecurity experts, worked around the clock over the weekend to respond to the ransomware incident affecting our systems. We are focused on restoring systems safely. We are making progress, however, it will take time to return to normal operations.
“As systems and services come back online, we will share those updates so that our patients and communities can plan accordingly. We have established a dedicated website to share any updates we have across our system. We will be expanding the site this week to provide updates related to healthcare services as they relate to specific regions.”
Ascension also reiterated that if a patient has a scheduled appointment, those are proceeding as planned. However, wait times may be longer than usual and there may be some delays.
Ascension said patients can help speed things up by bringing a list of symptoms they are experiencing along with a list of current medications, including prescription numbers or bottles.
Health leaders also noted Ascension RX retail pharmacies are currently unable to fill prescriptions. Ascension said it will work with patients to find an alternative option.
When it comes to getting prescriptions, many patients have had some issues since the systems are down. There are now a few more obstacles to navigate, causing more paperwork and inconveniences for a lot of patients.
Hayat Pharmacy founder, Dr. Hashim Zaibak, said his pharmacies have been seeing an impact over the last week.
“Definitely a lot of outbound calls and inbound phone calls,” Dr. Zaibak said. “That has been significant. We have been getting a lot more phone calls from doctors giving us verbal prescriptions.”
As of Tuesday, Hayat said it cannot receive any electronic prescriptions from Ascension. Its team is having to take handwritten ones and even make calls to each provider to receive a verbal prescription.
“We are going backwards,” said Dr. Zaibak. “So we are going to the old way of doing things from 20-30 years ago."
Dr. Zaibak said if you are a current patient with a pharmacy and have a recurring medication in need of a refill, pharmacists have the ability to prescribe a seven day supply during a crisis situations like this.
However, for those highly controlled medications such as ADHD medications or Oxycodone, a handwritten prescription is required.
“Nobody should go without taking their chronic medication because of this issue,” he said. “We as pharmacists have tools to use to take care of patients. But we need the patients to come to us to let us know."
He said the situation is creating more work for both providers and pharmacists but it is still a manageable situation with a few more steps than usual.
Dr. Zaibak also stressed that no one should worry, and to call your pharmacist if you have any questions while the Ascension systems remain down.