Officials at Bluewater Health are reminding residents to consider alternative healthcare options as respiratory illness numbers continue to rise in the community. “The days following the holidays are our busiest time of year — and with the rate of respiratory illness circulating in the community, this year is no exception,” the hospital noted in a […]
Officials at Bluewater Health are reminding residents to consider alternative healthcare options as respiratory illness numbers continue to rise in the community.
“The days following the holidays are our busiest time of year — and with the rate of respiratory illness circulating in the community, this year is no exception,” the hospital noted in a social media post this week. “Our emergency departments are seeing higher-than-normal volumes, and we’d like to remind the public to consider all of their community healthcare options.”
That includes:
“Please reserve the emergency departments for true emergencies only,” officials added.
Those who do attend the hospital are reminded to bring health cards, any pertinent health information, an up-to-date medications list and any reports from other clinicians involved in a patient’s care.
“We’d like to remind the public to avoid visiting a loved one in hospital over the holiday if you are feeling unwell,” a hospital statement noted last week. “And if you have to visit the hospital for an appointment, we ask that you kindly wear a mask if you are experiencing cold and flu symptoms.”
In its most recent statement regarding the impact of October’s hospital cyberattack, officials said Bluewater Health is still in the process of restoring ‘core clinical systems.’
“We have encountered complexities during this process, which means that various core clinical applications will be coming back online for our hospital as they become available, rather than our entire system all at once,” the statement read. “It's a deliberate strategy aimed at ensuring the highest level of security.”
They added that the impacted hospitals — Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Windsor Regional Hospital — are working diligently with TransForm (the hospitals’ shared service provider) and iSecurity “to build the highest level of security into their systems.”
“In fact, an intense concentration on network security, and ensuring that we do not experience a repeated cyberattack, is at the heart of Bluewater Health’s continuing restoration efforts,” officials added. “While this dedication affects our restoration timelines, rest assured it is an essential step that we won’t compromise.
“We understand the importance of safeguarding our systems to prevent any recurrence of such an incident.”
Bluewater Health was the hardest hit of the group of southwestern Ontario hospitals targeted in a ransomware attack on Oct. 23. The hospital group says no ransom was paid.
Officials announced in a Nov. 9 news release that data on some 5.6 million patient visits had been stolen — including information on every patient seen at Bluewater Health or predecessor institutions since Feb. 24, 1992.
A followup news release noted that patients who have visited the hospital since Nov. 1999 for a work-related injury, such as a WSIB claim, are asked to phone 519-346-4604.
For more information, visit bluewaterhealth.ca/cyberattack-at-regional-hospitals-community-information.
