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Fri Jul 19 10:31:31 PDT 2024

Health Tech | Fierce Healthcare

(https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/global-it-outage-takes-down-health-system-ehrs-forces-hospitals-cancel-non-emergency) Global IT outage forces hospitals to delay, cancel services
Jul 19th 2024, 13:31

Editor's Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more information as the situation evolves.
A widespread outage to Microsoft systems has impacted health systems, hospitals and clinics as electronic health record software has been knocked offline, forcing providers to cancel non-emergency procedures and services.
Several states across the U.S. also reported that their emergency 911 call centers have been hit. The outage also impacted banks, media companies and airlines, with thousands of flights canceled.

Microsoft suffered a (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-internet-outages-reported-worldwide/) global IT outage Friday morning that has been blamed on a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack," CrowdStrike said in a (https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/statement-on-falcon-content-update-for-windows-hosts/) statement posted to its website. "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website."
Mass General Brigham said the worldwide software outage affected many of its systems impacting providers' access to clinical systems, including patient health records and scheduling.
The health system canceled all non-urgent medical visits at all of its hospitals and clinics Friday, according to a (https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en) statement posted to its website. 
The health system said hospitals are open for urgent appointments and procedures, and emergency rooms remain open.
The outage is affecting large health systems and smaller hospitals alike. Kaleida Health, which operates five hospitals in the Buffalo, New York area, said it has implemented computer downtime procedures and encourages patients to report to appointments as scheduled, according to a (https://www.kaleidahealth.org/) statement posted online. Procedures may be delayed, the hospital said.

Local media throughout the country reported problems for hospitals with clinical IT systems being down, forcing providers to revert to paper records.
An Epic spokesperson said in a statement that Nebula, Epic’s platform for cloud-based applications and services, was impacted last night by the Microsoft Azure Central region outage. "Some features such as Epic Video Client for telehealth visits were not available during the outage. We have restored access to these features and are monitoring Nebula," the spokesperson said.
The CrowdStrike update has not affected Epic's software or services directly but has caused technical issues that prevent healthcare organizations from using their systems, the spokesperson said.
"Some groups have reported that the laptop and desktop workstations their staff use to access Epic are down. Others report that issues with data center software are preventing them from using multiple systems including Epic. Organizations that have been affected are following pre-established downtime protocols to continue delivering patient care. Epic staff are working with customer IT teams to restore access as fixes or mitigation approaches are available from CrowdStrike," the spokesperson told Fierce Healthcare.
Epic’s internal systems, including those we use to provide remote support to customers worldwide, are unaffected.
Local Providence, Oregon hospitals lost access to health records overnight due to the issues, however as of Friday morning they have regained access, a local news outlet (https://www.koin.com/news/portland/microsoft-outages-croudstrike-problems-pdx-hospitals-07192204/) reported.
In a statement, Providence said its facilities, like other organizations across the world, were impacted by the Crowdstrike outage. "Our IT teams have been working overnight to respond to the issue and have restored key functionality in the Epic electronic health record so that nurses, physicians and other caregivers can access patient records and perform clinical documentation," the health systm said in a statement. "However, other clinical applications and workstations continue to be impacted, and our IT teams are working to restore these services as soon as possible. Patient safety and access to care is always the top priority at Providence. We will provide updates as new information becomes available."
Cleveland Clinic said some of its technology has been impacetd by the global IT outage. "Patient care is not affected, and we are continuing to provide care at all locations," the health system said in a statement.
A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare said the health system has not been directly impacted by CrowdStrike’s technology issue. "We are working with our vendors to understand any issues they may be facing. We do not expect the incident to impact our ability to provide care to our patients," the spokesperson said.
UPMC said the CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage affected fewer than 10% of its Microsoft Windows-based devices at some of our facilities. "UPMC’s IT team intervened early to mitigate the problem and is restoring servers and PCs. Patient care has not been affected and our facilities are operational. Our emergency departments are open and appointments and procedures will proceed as scheduled," a health system spokesperson said in a statement.
On Reddit and TikTok posts, online chatter from nurses and clinicians described widespread impacts with hospital clinical IT systems being down and some hospitals even diverting patients. One post on Reddit said the tech outage was affecting all the hospitals in the poster's city and emergency services. "Health records not working. EMS can’t call the hospital for out of protocol orders and 911 dispatch having problems," the poster wrote.
Many reported earlier this morning that Epic EHR systems have been down for several hours.
Corewell Health in Michigan, which operates 21 hospitals, posted a statement on its website that many of its computers and systems were affected by the current global technology issue. "Our teams are assessing the situation and working together to care for our patients. Our hospitals and emergency rooms are open. Some procedures and appointments might be delayed," the health system wrote.
News 12 in New York reported that Northwell Health activated its system emergency operations center Friday due to the widespread technology outage.
In a statement, a spokesperson said Northwell Health is currently experiencing sporadic technology impacts due to a global issue caused by a faulty update from a third-party cybersecurity provider, CrowdStrike. "Where needed, we have implemented standard emergency response procedures to ensure the continued quality of care and safety of our patients," the spokesperson said.

(https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/augmedix-acquired-commure-valuation-139-mil) Commure to acquire AI scribe Audmedix in $139M all-cash deal
Jul 19th 2024, 13:31

Healthcare technology company Commure plans to buy Augmedix, a healthcare artificial intelligence company founded in 2013, the companies announced Friday.
Commure, which merged with Athelas last year in a $6 billion deal, is getting a foothold in the AI medical scribe market as the sector gets increasingly competitive.
Augmedix shares more than doubled in early trading Friday, soaring 150%.

The acquisition of the ambient AI company values it at $139 million. Augmedix shareholders will receive $2.35 per share in cash when the deal formally closes in late Q3 or early Q4, the company said. 

The share price at buyout was 169% more than the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the stock over the last 30 days, a press release from the company says. Augmedix will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Commure, and Commure will acquire all outstanding shares of Augmedix common stock. 
“As part of Commure, we believe Augmedix will be well-positioned to scale ambient documentation solutions to even more clinicians and health systems while simultaneously accelerating efforts to infuse more innovative features, integrations and AI capabilities into our product suite,” CEO of Augmedix Manny Krakaris said in a statement. 
Tony Tandon, CEO of Commure, commented that the acquisition will improve its health AI operating system. 
“Through our acquisition of Augmedix, we’re taking a huge step forward in building the health AI operating system of the future, using language models to consolidate various point solutions into a single, integrated platform for providers, clinical operations teams, and healthcare IT,” Tandon said. 
In October, Commure (https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/health-tech-companies-commure-athelas-unveil-merger-plans-drive-automation-llm-tech) announced plans to merge with Athelas, a provider of healthcare workflow automation software, to grab a bigger piece of the health system market.

That merger combined Athelas’ large language model expertise and Commure’s scaled software and hardware solutions, according to executives. The combined company will be able to accelerate the integration of language models and workflow automation technology into larger health systems, Tandon said.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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