Key part of UVM Health Network electronic medical records system restored - WCAX

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BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - It has been nearly a month since the cyberattack on the UVM Health Network. It seriously impacted operations at the six hospitals within the network but hit the UVM Medical Center the hardest. However, progress continues to be made and systems restored.

Leaders at the UVM Medical Center say their IT experts have been able to restore the electronic medical record system and call the progress a big step toward getting back to normal.

We know the cyberattack that was reported near the end of October impacted 500 separate applications within the UVM Health Network.

The electronic medical record system, also known as EPIC, was one of the top concerns. It holds important patient medical history and since the system went down, staffers have been keeping handwritten copies of information.

Now that that info can be re-entered into the system, hospital leaders say it’s just another step toward getting back on track.

“While we don’t have everything back-- so it’s not quite business as normal-- having our electronic medical record is a huge key first step. The mood was good throughout the day and I can tell you that people are extremely happy to have that back. They understand it’s going to be weeks until everything’s recovered, but we’re well on the way,” said Dr. Stephen Leffler, the president and CEO of the UVM Medical Center.

It’s also important to note that at this time the hospital does not believe that ant patient information was compromised in the attack.

The EPIC system is fully functional at UVMMC and where it’s used at the Central Vermont Medical Center.

Work is still being done to restore it where it’s used at Porter and CVPH in Plattsburgh.

Now that a key part of the recovery is done, leaders at the UVM Medical Center say they are planning a full evaluation of what happened. But right now it’s too early to make the call on what could have been done differently.

Leffler says the staff has learned a lot from the incident. He said they will change policies for computer work from home, as many employees did because of the pandemic.

But it’s still unclear how the attack first impacted the network.

Leaders say as they rebuild and restore systems, the focus has been getting the most up to date, protected, modern software and programs.

“This is an arms race between our it folks and the bad folks. This stuff is evolving very quickly. We may be getting ahead of them right now, and they’re going to work really hard to pass us. We’re doing some things now to even be more secure and rebuilding things in different ways but, again, how long that is in the front, we’ll see,” said Al Gobeille, the executive vice president of operations at the UVM Health Network.

While EPIC is back online, things in the radiology department are still behind, leading to some patients looking for services like mammograms being rerouted to other facilities within the network.

Chemotherapy is also still being impacted but the hospital does have extended hours to see as many of those patients as possible.

We know the UVM Medical Center is already facing budget constraints due to the pandemic. And officials still do not have an estimate on what the bill would look like for this rebuild and recovery effort.

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Key part of UVM Health Network electronic medical records system restored - WCAX

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