Some hospitals and medical centers in the US and abroad are reportedly being affected by the tech issue that is roiling airlines, banks, media outlets, and other businesses worldwide on Friday morning. Medical institutions scrambled to limit the disruption to patient services as much as they could.
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The issue has had a widespread effect on airlines, banks, media outlets, and other industries. It was not a cyberattack.
According to The Washington Post, "Hospitals and health systems around the world have been affected by the Microsoft outage."
The National Health Service in England reported problems experienced by primary care doctors' offices' computer systems.
The Health Ministry in Israel reported that "more than a dozen hospitals" were affected there.
"Two hospitals in the northern German cities of Lübeck and Kiel have also canceled elective surgeries scheduled for Friday, Reuters reported."
Hospitals Affected By Tech Issue
CBS News reported that "Hospitals in Germany said they were cancelling elective surgeries Friday and doctors in the U.K. said they were having issues accessing their online booking system. Pharmacists in the U.K. said there were disruptions with medicine deliveries and accessing prescriptions."
Mass General Brigham in Boston has canceled "All elective and non-emergent surgeries and procedures" as of Friday morning, WCVB-TV reported.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York posted this message on its web site: "MSK is having systems issues as a result of a worldwide technical disruption. We have procedures to ensure we can continue to provide safe, high-quality care to our patients.
At this time, we are pausing the start of any procedure that requires anesthesia. We are in the process of calling patients with appointments that are affected. If you have not been notified, please proceed to your scheduled appointment."
In Buffalo, NY, Kaleida, a non-profit that operates five hospitals, announced that, according to Senior Administrative Officer Michael Hughes, "Around midnight, Crowdstrike, the anti-virus software company ran its worldwide update. Like so many, Kaleida Health was initially impacted from an information technology standpoint. Around 3 a.m. we activated our internal incident command center to ensure that we can maintain operations. To that end, we implemented our normal computer "down time" procedures to ensure safe patient care. Throughout this morning our IT team and operational leaders have done an incredible job bringing our computer systems back online. We are encouraging all staff - as well as patients - to report as scheduled."
