O'FALLON, Ill. — After more than a week without phone systems, Hospital Sisters Health System announced Monday night that nearly all phone lines were back in service at its Illinois hospitals and clinics.
The HSHS hospital system outage began on Aug. 27 following a cybersecurity incident. Doctors and nurses were forced to provide care for over a week without internet or phones.
It affected clinical operations and communications systems.
Four St. Louis-area hospitals were affected: HSHS St. Elizabeth's Hospital, HSHS St. Joseph's Breese, HSHS St. Joseph's Highland and HSHS Holy Family Hospital.
HSHS St. Elizabeth's in O'Fallon, Illinois, was forced to close its Convenient Care on Sunday due to the outage.
Although phone service has been restored, HSHS noted in the update that callers may experience some delays or connectivity issues for the next week.
According to the Monday update, HSHS is working with a third party and expects to bring systems back online promptly with patient safety in mind. Patients will be notified if any personal information was compromised during the cyberattack.
As efforts continue to address the cybersecurity incident at the health care system, HSHS said Monday that hospitals and emergency departments would remain open and continue receiving and treating patients. Patients are still able to schedule both elective and non-elective procedures.
Patient billing services, however, remain suspended, and the outpatient HSHS St. John's Community Pharmacy is unable to process or fill digital prescription orders. In the meantime, some hospitals are providing patients with written prescriptions to take to other pharmacies.
To read the full update from HSHS along with answers to frequently asked questions, visit hshsupdates.org.
Help in Highland
Highland's city manager confirms it was able to assist the local hospital in setting up temporary phone lines so they could maintain communication with its clients. The city operates its own fiber and communication service.
Highland Police Chief Carole Presson instantly thought of patients. The Highland Police Department is right next door to the St. Joseph's Hospital in Highland.
"I was advised by our IT department that there was a possible cyber attack on the hospital. Because I'm the public safety director, they were re-routing patients to other hospitals because of the equipment issues with the hospital," Presson said.
Presson also wants people to be aware of scammers.
"People really need to pay attention on how they are handling their personal information when it comes to the internet. Be very careful on who you are talking to when giving information," Presson noted.
Local health departments respond
A spokesperson with St. Clair County Health Department said it's being supportive and available to help.
St. Elizabeth's Hospital in O'Fallon, Illinois, falls in its jurisdiction.
A statement from the spokesperson said in part, "We have been experiencing some scheduling and billing issues for our clients for HSHS services associated with the programs we offer."
In Bond County, Holy Family Hospital sits in Greenville, Illinois.
The Bond County Health Department said it provides home health and hospice care. Their spokesperson said they were trying to help if assistance was needed.
Cyber security expert
Washington University Cyber Security expert Joseph Scherrer thinks this breach can be serious.
"As of late June of this year, there have been more than 220 of these types of attacks across the country that have targeted hospitals and healthcare systems and over 36 million people. In 2023, it's been four to five times more than 2022," Scherrer said.
Scherrer believes greed is the main player behind the problem.
He said, "The illicit cybercrime economy is about a trillion dollars a year. What these malicious actors try to do is extort."
5 On Your Side on demand
Quickly find out what’s going on in St. Louis by watching the first segment of our broadcasts, including Today in St. Louis and 5 On Your Side at Noon, 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.