Several Washington hospital systems were hit by the global CrowdStrike outage Friday, resulting in a spate of clinic closures and appointment cancellations around the region.
Seattle Children's hospital lost most of its IT systems Friday and said that teams were "actively working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible." The hospital and its urgent care centers remained open Friday, but all clinics — including Odessa Brown Children's Center, regional clinics and ambulatory clinics — closed for the day.
Children's staffers were calling patients to reschedule appointments and surgeries, a hospital spokesperson said. Virtual urgent care services resumed by Friday afternoon.
Local healthcare organizations and hospitals joined others throughout the U.S. that also felt immediate impacts of the outage and spent the day scrambling to address IT problems. In some states, like New York, health centers paused the start of any procedures that require anesthesia, and many couldn't use their computer systems. In the Puget Sound region, delays in services varied between hospital systems.
Providence Health & Services also kept its hospitals open but closed a couple of clinics. According to a hospital statement, Providence teams worked overnight and restored functionality in the Epic electronic health record so staffers could access patient records and record clinical documentation Friday. Still, other workstations remained down as of Friday evening, the hospital said.
Kathryn Mueller, a spokesperson for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, said some of its facilities were "affected" by the outage, but its hospitals and clinics were open Friday. Patients will be contacted if their appointments were changed, she said.
Other health and hospital systems in the state seemed to face fewer impacts of the tech outage.
Kaiser Permanente responded to the incident by activating its national command center around 4:30 a.m. Friday, according to hospital spokesperson Linnae Riesen. All Kaiser hospitals and medical offices remained open Friday, and are continuing to monitor their operations.
UW Medicine hospitals — including Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center and Valley Medical Center — and clinics were open and seeing patients, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.
Most of MultiCare Health System's computer systems were also hit by the outage, but hospital emergency departments and its Indigo urgent care centers throughout Washington remained open Friday, according to a hospital statement.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center said its facilities were operational and continuing to provide patient care, but warned of possible delays to some services Friday due to using a limited number of computers.
In its online update, Providence also warned the public to be aware of phishing attempts from those claiming to be from CrowdStrike and Microsoft.
"We urge you to use caution," Providence said on a blog it will continue to update. "Do not click on any unfamiliar links or share any personal/sensitive information with individuals on the phone."
While some pharmacy chains around the world have reported connection delays and issues providing medication due to the global tech outage, local retail pharmacies say they've seen minimal impacts.
CVS Pharmacy locations in Washington were open and operating normally, said company spokesperson Monica Prinzing. Rite Aid stores, including Bartell Drugs locations in Washington, also kept their pharmacies open Friday.
Some customers experienced temporary disruptions, but "nothing impeded us from selling merchandise or dispensing prescriptions," said Rite Aid spokesperson Michelle McEnroe.
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