Some nursing homes have been impacted as electronic medical record systems (EHRs) are down due to a global tech outage, industry insiders told Skilled Nursing News. However, the extent of the disruption is unclear as yet.
“The impact of today’s Crowdstrike crisis is unfolding, so we do not have specifics at this time,” a LeadingAge spokesperson said in an email. “But it does serve as a reminder of the importance of having backup and contingency plans for situations when major operational software or applications fail.”
Health Dimensions Group’s (HDG) systems have not been affected by the outage, according to Erin Shvetzoff Hennessey, CEO of HDG. HDG uses PointClickCare (PCC), not Epic, for its EHR management.
HDG is a national management consulting organization supporting the successful delivery of senior living, assisted living, post-acute and long-term care. And the company provides management services to 29 communities across eight states.
Meanwhile, the outage has affected several hospitals including Boston-based Mass General Brigham and Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare, taking EHRs offline and forcing some to cancel non-emergency services, according to a report from Modern Healthcare.
Crowdstrike appears to be at the center of the outage – the cybersecurity company deployed an update for computers running on Microsoft Windows. Crowdstrike CEO said the issue has been identified and isolated, and a fix has been deployed.
EHR company Epic told Modern Healthcare that portions of its platform for cloud-based applications and service were impacted, but access to its telehealth platform and other services has been restored.
Epic’s internal systems were unaffected, the company said.
Some tools were moved to different Microsoft Azure servers. Some hospitals reported technical issues, preventing use of its systems. Laptop and desktop workstations staff use to access Epic are down, while others are reporting issues with data center software, preventing them from using multiple systems including Epic.
Companies featured in this article:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS, Crowdstrike, HDG, Health Dimensions Group