Scripps Health's Epic EHR system and online patient portal were restored May 27, nearly four weeks after a ransomware attack knocked the San Diego-based health system's network offline, The San Diego-Union Tribune reported.
Scripps President and CEO Chris Van Gorder penned a letter to patients May 24 updating them on the situation, but wrote that Scripps is limited in the amount of information it can share with patients since it could put the system "at an increased risk of coming under further attack, and of not being able to restore [its] systems safely and as quickly as possible."
In the update, Mr. Van Gorder confirmed that the May 1 cyberattack involved ransomware, and he told patients that Scripps would have its EHR back online this week. The health system restored its website May 20.
A Scripps nurse told the Tribune that the EHR returned to service at 4 a.m. on May 27. Scripps regained read-only access to Epic last week, which let staff look up past test results, clinician notes and other records created before the May 1 attack.
Scripps said it is unsure whether any patient data was affected by the incident and that it will notify any affected individuals if their data was exposed once the investigation ends.