Becker's Hospital Review

72 CIO / HEALTH IT 147,000+ individuals' health information stolen during Scripps ransomware attack By Jackie Drees S an Diego-based Scripps Health is notifying more than 147,000 individuals that their protected health information was exposed during a malware attack on its information systems in May, according to a June 1 KNSD report. "We are beginning to mail notification letters to approxi- mately 147,267 individuals so they can take steps to pro- tect their information," Scripps wrote in a statement to the network. Scripps discovered unusual network activity affecting some of its IT systems on May 1; aer launching an in- vestigation, the health system found that an unauthorized person gained access to its network and deployed mal- ware. On April 29, the hacker stole copies of documents on Scripps' systems, which contained certain patient in- formation, the health system said in a June 1 cyber inci- dent update. For certain patients, information exposed included names, addresses, birthdates, health insurance data, medical re- cord numbers, patient account numbers and treatment de- tails. Less than 2.5 percent of individuals' Social Security numbers and/or driver's license numbers were involved, and Scripps is providing these people with free credit monitoring and identity protection services. Scripps took its information systems offline May 1 in response to the ransomware attack. During nearly one month of EHR downtime, the health system operated us- ing established backup processes, including offline docu- mentation methods. Scripps continued care at its outpa- tient urgent care centers, Scripps HealthExpress locations and all its emergency departments. n Atlantic General Hospital CIO saves drowning toddler after bridge car crash By Jackie Drees T he CIO of a Maryland hospital helped save a 2-year-old from drowning after the child was thrown from a vehicle into the Assawoman Bay near Ocean City, according to a May 12 Daily American report. Jonathan Bauer, vice president of information services and CIO at Berlin, Md.-based Atlantic General Hospital, witnessed a crash on the Route 90 highway May 2 that left a truck hanging over the bridge's guardrail. After checking on the driver of the truck involved in the five-car crash, Mr. Bauer told the publication that he saw a car seat, some other items and the little girl floating on her back in the bay. He looked for any boats nearby to help the toddler, but there were none in the area. She then flipped over onto her stomach and her face was submerged in the water, prompting Mr. Bauer to jump off the bridge into the bay to help the child. "I popped up, swam over to the girl and lifted her out of the wa- ter," he told The Daily American. "Her mouth was open, her eyes were semi open. And then I raised my shoulder very high and aggressively patted her on her back. Within seconds she spit up a bunch of water and started coughing." A boat picked up the toddler and Mr. Bauer and took them to shore, where they were met by emergency responders. The child was air- lifted to Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Children's Center and was released May 12. She is expected to make a full recovery, police said. Seven other people from the crash were treated and released from hospitals, according to the report. n How Amazon Care's pay-by-usage model targets big employers By Katie Adams A s employers look to curb their share of increasing health- care costs, many may be attracted to healthcare offerings that charge them based on how many employees actually use the service, according to a May 6 report from eMarketer. Amazon Care, the tech giant's virtual healthcare business, on May 5 gained its first enterprise client, fitness company Precor. Amazon launched the virtual care offering in 2019 as a way to decrease the high cost of insuring Amazon employees. Ama- zon Care's pay-by-usage model could attract more large em- ployer customers because it offers them less risk and upfront cost commitments. The amount Amazon Care charges employers is based on how many employees use its healthcare services each month, rather than fixed costs based on how many services are offered and the employer's number of employees, meaning companies don't have to pay an upfront fee based on their size. n

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