Becker's Hospital Review

35 CIO / HEALTH IT Cyberattack on Alabama hospital linked to 1st alleged ransomware death By Hannah Mitchell A lawsuit is alleging that a 2019 ran- somware attack on Mobile, Ala.- based Springhill Medical Center re- sulted in a baby's death, according to a Sept. 30 report by e Wall Street Journal. In July 2019, the hospital said it was operating without the full function of its computer systems. e facility shut down its network for nearly eight days because of a ransomware attack. Pa- tient records were inaccessible, and medical staff were cut off from equipment used to monitor fetal heartbeats, among other disruptions. e attack is now allegedly linked to the first hospital death caused by a ransomware attack, if the suit holds up in court. When Teiranni Kidd went to the hospital to deliver her baby, she said she had no idea the hospital was in the middle of a ransomware attack, the Journal reported. Her daughter was born at the hospital with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. e baby suffered severe brain damage due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around her neck and she died nine months later. Katelyn Parnell, MD, attending OB-GYN at the hospital, texted the nurse manager that she would have delivered the baby by cesarean section had she seen the monitor readout. "I need u to help me understand why I was not notified," Dr. Parnell said in a text message obtained by the Journal. Dr. Parnell said in an- other text: "is was preventable." Ms. Kidd is suing the hospital, claiming the ransomware attack prevented Dr. Parnell from learning about the baby's condition, the Jour- nal reported. e suit alleged that the ransom- ware attack disrupted how the nurses could monitor the baby's heart rate at the nurses' station, according to the Journal. e hospital has denied any wrongdoing. Jeffery St. Clair, CEO of the hospital, told the Journal, "We stayed open and our dedicated healthcare workers continued to care for our patients because the patients needed us and we, along with the independent treating phy- sicians who exercised their privileges at the hospital, concluded it was safe to do so." Dr. Parnell said in court filings she had been aware of the ransomware attack, but she believed it was safe for Ms. Kidd to deliver her baby at the hospital, the Journal reported. e hospital claimed in a motion that any obligation to inform Ms. Kidd about the hack fell on Dr. Parnell, who had not yet responded to that motion at the time of publication. e lawsuit reveals that some employees are claiming they were initially in the dark about the attack, the Journal reported. Computers had notes taped on them saying EHRs were down until further notice. One physician wrote in a message submitted as evidence, "I heard it was ransomware." Amid the attack, a hospital spokesperson told WPMI that no patient information or patient care was affected by the incident. n CIOs rely on tech freelancers to fill talent gaps: 3 things to know By Hannah Mitchell C IOs are turning to IT freelancers, who can fill their talent shortages and allow them to cherry-pick what expertise they need for a current project, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 8. Three things to know: 1. CIOs are choosing freelancers with expertise in specific project areas rather than fighting an uphill battle for full- time employees, according to the report. 2. In September, U.S. employers posted 295,034 unfilled IT positions. In 2020, 161,000 out of 5.6 million tech workers de- scribed themselves as self-employed, the Journal reported. 3. Sam Bright, chief product and experience officer for Up- work, a freelance marketplace, told the Journal employers are finding value in using freelancers over full-time employees. "It gives workers a better opportunity to find something they like and employers to quickly find the people they need without going through the long, costly and hit-and- miss process of hiring," Mr. Bright said. n White House to shift hospital COVID-19 data-tracking oversight back to CDC By Jackie Drees T he Biden administration plans to move the federal public health data-tracking system back to the CDC after the Trump administration's shift in July 2020, Bloomberg reported Oct. 14. HHS altered hospitals' COVID-19 data reporting protocols July 15, 2020. Under the change, hospitals were required to send information — including capacity, inpatient bed and ICU bed occupancy rates — directly to the state or state contrac- tor, which would send the data to HHS instead of hospitals re- porting it to the CDC. At the time, an HHS spokesperson told The New York Times the agency made the switch because HHS' new data-tracking system is faster and would avoid lag times that the CDC's system had been experiencing. HHS signed off on a recommendation Oct. 1 to move the data-tracking system out of its CIO office's management and back under CDC oversight, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg. The change back to CDC management is intended to sup- port long-term custody and stability of the data system, Kaiser Health News reported Oct. 15. n

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