OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — CHI Health is experiencing a widespread technology-related security breach. According to a spokeswoman, the parent company for CHI, Common Spirit Health, was the victim of a security incident that appears to affect the organization's computer systems across the country.
On Wednesday, 3 News Now received an email from a CHI patient who showed up for their scheduled blood test and was turned away. The patient says the staff was unable to look up their medical records and they were not notified ahead of showing up that they would not be seen. The situation, says the patient, is frustrating.
A CHI employee tells 3 News Now that when patients walk in, staff essentially don't know why the patient is there. They added that everyone has to fill out a hard copy of their patient information forms.
"Another really big impact for us has been virtual visits where patients actually connect through there. We connect through the electronic health records system," the CHI employee said over Zoom. "So if a patient doesn't have our scheduling phone number to our program, then we are not able to do those visits at all. So we don't know. Those patients are being left in the dark essentially if they connect and we are not there."
Another individual said they have no access to patient information and reminder calls for appointments are not happening either. They said they get updates every two hours and, right now, there is not an estimated time of restoration.
There were several patients coming and going from one of the clinics on Wednesday and we spoke to a couple who were turned away after requesting an X-ray. They now have to go to the emergency room.
3 News Now reached out to CHI again to find out who is being impacted, what appointments are impacted, and how the healthcare system is currently handling patient care and information. We had not heard back at the time this story aired Wednesday evening.
SEE MORE: CHI Health dealing with IT security issue leaving local patients unable to schedule appointments
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