Patient gets biopsy in U.S. after she says she was denied in Ontario due to ransomware attack

[Emergent, RN]

Patient gets biopsy in U.S. after she says she was denied in Ontario due to ransomware attack

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Amherstburg, Ont., resident Jennifer Duguay says she's still in disbelief that she crossed the border to get a biopsy after she was denied care in Windsor due to ongoing hospital delays caused by a ransomware attack.

The 52-year-old said that after three weeks of dealing with a large rash on her chest, her family doctor told her she might have inflammatory breast cancer — a rare and aggressive type. 

She says her doctor told her she would be referred to Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) for an urgent biopsy. But days later, on Nov. 8, Duguay said the hospital's Breast Health Centre called and told her it couldn't be done because computer systems were still down from a cyberattack. 

"[I was in] absolute shock that my doctor's referring me for something that's an emergency and I'm being told no? Absolute shock," she said. "I was very upset ... and I said, 'this is my life, what are you talking about?'"

Duguay also says she was told that she couldn't go outside of the region to get the biopsy done in London or Toronto. 

 

[Emergent, RN]

There is a comment/ discussion section below the article which is interesting. The Canadians there sound like Americans, complaining about their system.

[Emergent, RN]

My favorite comment so far:

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So wasn't there a day when a supervisor could make a decision based on emergency need, and just order staff do do it and a thing called paper and pen were used in hospitals, and records updated later? Sigh ...

 

[Davey Do]

Sara Allin, associate professor: "Lack of resilience in our healthcare program".

We could go on further to say, "Apathy due to modern technical interventions", in that we put more trust in machines than people, and if those machines fail, we fail along with them. In this case, because of a ransomware attack, the entire healthcare process failed.

In my own professional  experience as a healthcare giver, I noticed a decline in my own direct assessments and care and became more depended upon machines to do that job for me than was there 40+ years ago. For example, if a monitor said a patient's BP was high, well then, I'd resort to monitoring it manually, in order to assure the reading was accurate. However, if the machine said the BP was within normal parameters, the reading was accepted and documented.

Recently, as a patient, I've experienced a dermalogical condition, sought services from a Doc in the Box twice, and the condition still worsened. Luckily, I had a yearly routine checkup with my PMD, who put in a dermalogical consult for me. "Do I need to do anything?", I asked my PMD. "No", he replied, "They'll get ahold of you".

Though MyChart, I affirmed the consult was made, but a week passed and I heard nothing, so I telephoned my PMD's office to find no contact with the dermatologist on my behalf had taken place, so I got the ball rolling. Two more days passed, no word, so I contacted the dermatologist office myself where they had no information on me, so I went ahead and scheduled an appointment.

The computerized communication system had failed, so the professionals involved had failed to make a timely intervention. 

 

 

[Emergent, RN]

This really shows an unhealthy reliance on a very sophisticated Network. I just watched a data center being built, as an occupational health nurse. The amount of resources from the Earth that is invested in these data centers is incredible.

There are almost 3,000 data centers in the United States right now. Each one of them could be vulnerable to an attack, or an act of God weather event. They store incredible amounts of information. It's a very state of the art technology that has a enormous carbon footprint.

 

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Emergent said:

They store incredible amounts of information. It's a very state of the art technology that has a enormous carbon footprint.

I wonder what would be the carbon footprint of all those millions of pieces of paper..  Sometimes we'd have patients with three or four packed charts if they were there for a long time.

Our dependence on technology and how it can be breached is scary if it delays care.  The old "I can't help you right now the computer is down" is a real thing.

On the other hand, I love technology.  When my doctor moved he recommended another doctor.  I made my appointment on an app, looked up the H&P she wrote on my app, filled out almost all the questionnaires (I.e. paperwork) on the app, got lab results on the app, and recently requested a refill of a medication on the app.  No paper script required and they have no paper charts in their office.   Very convenient for me.  

When it works, it works.  

 

[toomuchbaloney]

Emergent said:

There is a comment/ discussion section below the article which is interesting. The Canadians there sound like Americans, complaining about their system.

Except there aren't any Canadians who go bankrupt receiving care or have no access to routine preventative care.  Canadians don't really postpone needed care because they can't afford copay and deductible costs.  

[Emergent, RN]

toomuchbaloney said:

Except there aren't any Canadians who go bankrupt receiving care or have no access to routine preventative care.  Canadians don't really postpone needed care because they can't afford copay and deductible costs.  

The biggest issue here is how ridiculous it is to delay care because of over-reliance on computer systems.

The secondary problem for Canadians, that I learned from reading the comments, is that they do not have a National Healthcare System. Instead,  each Province runs their own system. In this case, the province of Ontario would not allow the lady to cross provincial borders to seek care.

Other than that, yes, the American system of letting Healthcare get ruled by insurance companies and their high deductibles is our problem, not theirs. Our system is especially hard on the middle class. But that's not what this article was really about. To me the core problem was the absurdity of not providing timely care because of a computer problem.

[toomuchbaloney]

Emergent said:

The biggest issue here is how ridiculous it is to delay care because of over-reliance on computer systems.

The secondary problem for Canadians, that I learned from reading the comments, is that they do not have a National Healthcare System. Instead,  each Province runs their own system. In this case, the province of Ontario would not allow the lady to cross provincial borders to seek care.

Other than that, yes, the American system of letting Healthcare get ruled by insurance companies and their high deductibles is our problem, not theirs. Our system is especially hard on the middle class. But that's not what this article was really about. To me the core problem was the absurdity of not providing timely care because of a computer problem.

The fundamental difference in access to basic care without breaking a working class budget is exactly why it's not a good idea to compare the complaints of the citizens of Canada and the USA related to health care.  In the USA people often can't seek care at facilities and providers in their immediate community because of insurance rules, much less travel to other communities and expect payment for care.  

All delays in needed healthcare for reasons which aren't patient or provider related are questionable, IMV. Currently USA patients are experiencing delays in care because of politics and routine private payer obstacles, that's exponentially more absurd than the aftermath of a cyber attack, IMV.

[Emergent, RN]

I didn't really start this thread to compare the two systems, and I don't really feel like discussing it anymore. I was just interested in reading the comments below the article. It gave me some new insights into the Canadian system.

As I've said more than once in my responses, modern medicine is relying on computers too much if a computer system problem can interfere with obtaining a time critical test. 

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

I'm sure it has happened but I had a cancer scare and my hospital (Owned by my insurance Co. ) sent me to a competing hospital system as time was of the essence for a diagnosis. 

 

Hppy

 

[CalicoKitty, BSN, MSN, RN]

When a hospital I worked at lost the computer systems due to hacking, it was terrible. The stuff like handwriting MAR and assessments.. Waiting many hours for labs (such as stat labs, heparin drip, etc).  Ours was only down for about a week, but it was scary, and while not mine, I wouldn't be surprised if people died simply because of the extra time it took for everything.