Patient Safety

Joint Commission Releases Guidance on Preserving Patient Safety After Cyberattack

September 1, 2023 - The Joint Commission, a healthcare accreditation organization, issued guidance on preserving patient safety after a cyberattack in its latest Sentinel Event Alert. The Joint Commission regularly publishes Sentinel Event Alerts for its accredited organizations, diving into specific adverse events in healthcare and providing recommendations to...


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How Sen. Warner Aims to Mitigate Healthcare Cybersecurity Risks Through Legislation

by Jill McKeon

Since releasing his policy options paper in November, Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA) has been collecting feedback from industry experts on healthcare cybersecurity challenges and how to tackle them through policy and legislation. As...

How Healthcare Cybersecurity Benchmarking Can Help Sector Enhance Security Efforts

by Jill McKeon

Healthcare cybersecurity benchmarking data can help health IT experts make data-driven decisions, evaluate program effectiveness, and improve their organization’s overall security posture, a new...

How Healthcare Cyberattacks Can Impact Patient Safety, Care Delivery

by Jill McKeon

Along with documented financial losses and reputational harm, healthcare cyberattacks may endanger patient safety and adversely impact care delivery. With the goal of understanding how various...

Lawsuit Links Baby Death to AL Healthcare Ransomware Attack

by Jill McKeon

A baby born at Springhill Medical Center in Alabama later died due to diminished care that resulted from a 2019 healthcare ransomware attack, a lawsuit alleged. The case marks the first public claim...

Healthcare Ransomware Attacks Lead to Increased Patient Mortality

by Jill McKeon

Financial strain, care disruptions, and time-consuming recovery operations often result from healthcare ransomware attacks, but new research revealed that increased patient mortality is also likely in...

Report: Privacy Concerns With Apps Used For Opioid Addiction Treatment

by Lisa Gentes-Hunt

A reported released by the ExpressVPN Digital Security Lab on July 7 revealed privacy concerns with ten smart phone apps used in...

Ransomware Attack on Maryland’s GBMC Health Spurs EHR Downtime

by Jessica Davis

GBMC HealthCare in Maryland is currently operating under planned EHR downtime procedures, after falling victim to a ransomware attack on Sunday, December 6. The malware infected its IT systems,...

UVM Health Brings EHR Back Online, One Month After Ransomware Attack

by Jessica Davis

The University of Vermont Health Network restored access to its Epic EHR, following a month of downtime procedures brought on by a massive ransomware attack across its care network. A November 24...

COVID-19 Home Monitoring Tools Pose Patient Privacy, Safety Risks

by Jessica Davis

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred the rapid adoption of remote patient monitoring tools to support patient care in light of social distancing needs. But the accelerated development...

House Votes to Lift HHS Funding Ban on National Patient Identifier

by Jessica Davis

In its Fiscal Year 2021 minibus package passed this week, the House of Representatives once again voted to remove a provision that effectively bans providing federal funds to the...

Medtronic Patches Vulnerabilities in CareLink, Implanted Medical Devices

by Jessica Davis

Medtronic recently issued a set of patches for previously disclosed vulnerabilities found in certain implanted cardiac medical devices and its CareLink Encore 29901 programmers. The first set of...

Feds Alert to Critical Vulnerabilities in GE Patient Monitoring Products

by Jessica Davis

Critical vulnerabilities found in certain GE patient monitoring, servers, and telemetry systems could allow a remote hacker to alter the function of the device, steal patient data, or interfere with...

Enloe Medical Remains in EHR Downtime 2 Weeks After Cyberattack

by Jessica Davis

Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California is still attempting to recover from a ransomware attack that struck on January 2. More than two weeks after the initial attack, the provider continues to care...

DCH Health Faces Federal Lawsuit After 10-Day Ransomware Attack

by Jessica Davis

Alabama-based DCH Health System is facing a federal lawsuit following a ransomware attack that disrupted care for non-critical patients for about 10 days in October, first reported by local news outlet...