O'FALLON, Ill. — More than two weeks after a "cybersecurity incident" caused a systemwide outage, Hospital Sisters Health System's electronic health records platform went back online Tuesday.
According to an update from HSHS, functionality was successfully restored Tuesday morning to the health system's EPIC platform, which includes MyHSHS and MyChart. This means patients can once again schedule appointments online and send messages to their health care providers.
HSHS said providers will work to respond to patient messages as quickly as possible. In the meantime, anyone who requires immediate assistance should call their provider's office.
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.
All clinical operations and communications systems were affected at the following St. Louis-area hospitals: HSHS St. Elizabeth's Hospital, HSHS St. Joseph's Breese, HSHS St. Joseph's Highland and HSHS Holy Family Hospital.
Phone lines were restored at the hospital system's hospitals and clinics last week, and HSHS is still working to restore the rest of its systems "in a methodical manner, which will take time to complete."
HSHS is dealing with more than just the effects of a cyberattack. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, HSHS Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Hodgkinson left her position on Friday. A spokesperson would not disclose if she was fired or resigned, or whether her exit was related to the cyberattack.
To read the full update from HSHS along with answers to frequently asked questions, visit hshsupdates.org.
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