JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Clinical operations were disrupted at Ascension after "a cyber security event" Wednesday, according to the hospital system. It's unclear whether Jacksonville area patients are affected.
According to Ascension, some access and clinical operations were impacted. They have alerted authorities and contacted cybersecurity firm Mandiant to help with the investigation.
The healthcare system said it would notify patients if sensitive information has been compromised.
Across 19 states, Ascension has 140 hospitals and 40 senior facilities. Ascension St. Vincent has four major hospitals in Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties and several clinics and outpatient centers around the First Coast.
About two weeks ago, UnitedHealth was subject to a cyberattack.
Here is Ascension St. Vincent's press release on the situation in full:
"On Wednesday, May 8, we detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cyber security event. At this time we continue to investigate the situation. We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts. Access to some systems have been interrupted as this process continues.
Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption.
We have engaged Mandiant, a third party expert, to assist in the investigation and remediation process, and we have notified the appropriate authorities. Together, we are working to fully investigate what information, if any, may have been affected by the situation. Should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines.
We are reaching out to our business partners to ensure they are aware of the situation so they can take appropriate steps to safeguard their systems. We encourage all business partners to coordinate with the Ascension Technology partners to address any specific questions.
This is an ongoing situation and we will provide updates as we learn more."