CenturyLink outage leaves Colorado hospital with no access to patient records

Banner Health's facilities and entities in multiple states were affected by a national CenturyLink and Verizon outage that left staff at one Colorado hospital with spotty phone service and no access to patient records, according to the Greeley Tribune.

The nationwide outage started with CenturyLink Dec. 27 when the company's engineers found a "network element" that was affecting services. It also affected Verizon Wireless, which caused phone outages for Banner Health facilities.

Banner Health is a 28-hospital health system based in Phoenix. The system operates facilities across six different states. Banner Health's facilities and entities in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska were affected by the outage, Banner Health spokesperson Sara Quale told Becker's. Colorado experienced the biggest impact.

Greeley, Colo.-based North Colorado Medical Center, owned by Banner Health, experienced outages for both phones and computers starting Dec. 27. Staff could not access patient records, and IT staff ensured acute care computers were working in hospital rooms.

The outage was resolved around 3 a.m. MT Dec. 28, Ms. Quale said. The health system brought in additional staff to update EMRs with the patient information collected during the down time.

This story was updated on Dec. 28 at 10:58 a.m. CT to include additional information from Banner Health. 

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