“This is another great milestone in our recovery process. Our teams have worked incredibly hard to bring imaging up, so we could end diversion in our emergency departments,” said John Weimer, Kettering Health senior vice president and leader for incident command.
“We’re incredibly grateful to our community partners, especially GDAHA and Premier Health, for their support and to our own caregivers and staff who continue to develop temporary measures to boost our recovery and return to normal procedures,” Weimer said.
A cyberattack on May 20 caused a system-wide technology outage at Kettering Health. Administrators believe the cyberattack was ransomware, though they did not have direct contact with the perpetrators.
These types of cyberattack generally take between 10-20 days to fix, according to industry experts.
Hospitals continue to coordinate
Hospitals across the Dayton region are working collaboratively to ensure continuity of care for Dayton area patients, the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association said. There are still some limitations being seen until technology systems are fully operational.
“This is a powerful example of how strong collaboration and preparedness across our region protects patient care, even in the face of unforeseen disruptions,” said Sarah Hackenbracht, president and CEO of GDAHA.
While Kettering Health said it is ending its EMS diversion, GDAHA said EMS is coordinating with each of the hospitals to find the best location to transfer patients based on the their medical needs.
EMS is maintaining close communication with hospital emergency departments and adjusting transport routes based on capacity and service availability, GDAHA said.
Supports to employees
All employees will be paid on schedule and employees have received this communication, Kettering Health said. Guidance from Kettering Health Human Resources has been shared with leaders to help employees if their pay is incorrect.
Kettering Health’s incident command centers are helping to address the needs and concerns of staff and patients.
“Our nurses, seasoned nurses, have really taken our younger nurses and have really streamlined a solid process to allow these nurses to perform and take excellent care of our patients,” Aimee Swallows, administrative nursing supervisor at Kettering Health, said in a recent video posted to the hospital system’s social media accounts.
“Top priority is safety and managing our patients very well,” Swallows said. “You’re seeing a lot of collaboration and a lot of ideas, and I think overall it’s really bringing us closer together as a profession.”
Scheduled appointments, walk-ins being seen
Patients should come to their scheduled appointments or surgeries unless one of Kettering Health’s clinical teams calls to reschedule.
Kettering Health’s emergency rooms, on-demand care sites and urgent cares continue to be open during this outage.
Kettering Health Primary Care practices are open for walk-in appointments with people who are already established Kettering Health patients, the hospital organization said in an earlier update.
Kettering Health recently launched a temporary clinical support phone line at 937-600-6879 for patients with urgent health questions. It will be staffed by nurses from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
For urgent medical needs after hours, on weekends and holidays, Kettering Health Medical Group patients can call MatchMD at 1-866-257-5363, but otherwise for urgent medical questions patients can call the temporary clinical support line.
For medical emergencies, patients are urged to go to the nearest emergency department.
Kettering Health has 14 area medical centers and more than 120 outpatient locations throughout Western Ohio, as well as Kettering Physician Network, which includes more than 700 board-certified providers.
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