McLaren hospitals in Michigan may reschedule some procedures after system disruption

(FOX 2) - Another major hospital chain in Michigan is dealing with a disruption to its internal technology systems, disrupting online access for patients. 

This time, it's McLaren Health Care, which confirmed it was "experiencing a disruption" to its digital network and telephone systems."

"We are working to determine the extent of the disruption and do not have a timeframe to restore functionality," read a statement from Dave Jones at McLaren. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our patients."

At times on Tuesday, McLaren's webpage sent people to a broken link, before working again. It's unclear what is causing the outage. 

In an update from McLaren Health Care, they added that patients with scheduled appointments should still plan on attending them, "unless they are contacted by a member of our care team."

Some non-emergent and elective procedures may be rescheduled as a result of technological issues. 

If anyone does plan on attending an appointment, they asked to bring a list of current medications or empty prescription bottles, printed physician orders for imaging studies, printed lab results, which are available in the patient portal, and a list of any allergies.

"We understand this situation may be frustrating to our patients - and to our team members - and we deeply and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We kindly ask for your patience while our caregivers and support teams work as diligently as ever to provide our communities the care they need and deserve," hospital officials said.

Without an explanation from McLaren, patients are left to wonder what might be causing the problem. According to David Derigiotis, who works in cybersecurity, problems that stem from a glitch or a cyber attack can look similar. 

But following reports of ambulances being diverted to other hospitals, he suspected it could be the latter.

"When you hear stories about ambulances being diverted, with IT systems, phones, computer networks being out - you're saying that there's an active disruption taking place - it sounds like malicious activity to me," said Derigiotis.

Thirteen hospitals are encompassed under the McLaren health system. 

Another health care chain that dealt with a cyber attack earlier this year was Ascension Hospital, which saw patient care impacted when doctors couldn't access records due to a breach. It took months for the hospital to resolve the outage.