Yale New Haven Health Systems (YNHHS) said Wednesday it is having telephone issues that are related to its efforts to recover from a cybersecurity incident over the weekend.
YNHHS had disclosed Tuesday it was investigating a weekend cybersecurity incident that affected information technology services across the system.
In the statement issued Tuesday, YNHHS said its “patient portal and electronic medical records are running as normal, and our teams are working hard to manage the impact of phone and internet connection issues on patient care.”
The text message received by patients Wednesday morning states that “Yale New Haven Health/Yale Medicine (is) having issues with inbound phone calls. Please defer non-urgent calls and use MyChart messaging. Responses will be delayed.”
MyChart is an app that allows patients to interact with their physicians, as well as to renew prescriptions, pay bills and access medical records and test results.
In its announcement of the cybersecurity incident, YNHHS said it is working with Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm, to conduct the investigation into the matter. It did not say what form the cybersecurity incident took, or whether any patient or staff information was accessed or compromised.
YNHHS did say the issue was “immediately identified by our Digital and Technology Solutions team, who quickly began working to mitigate the issue and launched an investigation into its source.”
“Due to our team’s quick action to identify and help to contain this incident, it has not affected our ability to provide patient care,” YNHHS said Tuesday.
YNHHS also said it was notifying federal authorities of the incident, but it is not yet listed on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights Data Breach Portal, which is available online.
The website lists all breaches reported within the last 24 months that are currently under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights.
