Portneuf Medical Center’s patient portal restored after cyberattack
Published at | Updated at
POCATELLO — A regional hospital has restored its patient portal after a cyberattack last month.
Portneuf Medical Center has restored MyChart following the ransomware attack on its parent company, Ardent Health Services, discovered on Nov. 23. All of Ardent’s 30 hospitals around the country were affected by this cyberattack.
“The hospital is happy to provide the very highest level of care to patients, and that includes MyChart,” said Mary Keating, spokesperson for Portneuf Medical Center.
MyChart allows patients to access their medical information and schedule and reschedule appointments. MyChart’s return was announced Thursday. Access to Epic, the electronic medical record platform, was restored Dec. 6.
Although these systems have been restored, the cyberattack isn’t fully resolved. According to Ardent’s update, some nonemergency procedures are paused as the company works to bring additional systems back online.
RELATED | Who is behind this year’s string of cyberattacks?
“We are working around the clock to bring the remaining systems back online as quickly and safely as possible and will continue to provide updates on our progress,” read an update posted this week.
To continue operations, Portneuf had to operate in downtime procedures, where staff use paper and pencil.
Due to being in downtime procedures, a portion of MyChart features remain temporarily unavailable, including video visits and access to financial statements.
“We sincerely regret any inconvenience this incident has caused and encourage patients who have questions about their care or other clinical matters to contact their provider through MyChart or by phone,” Keating said.
Keating said that she was proud of the hospital staff, but wasn’t surprised that they continued to provide high-quality care.
“I would expect nothing less of the team we have here at Portneuf. Their highest concern is always providing high quality care to the community,” Keating said. “They definitely step up to the challenge every single time need arises.”
See Ardent Health Service’s updates on restoring its systems here.