KETTERING, Ohio — Four days after experiencing a "cybersecurity incident" that caused a system-wide technology outage, Kettering Health Network's CEO, Mike Gentry, issued a statement regarding the ongoing situation.
In the message, Gentry explained, "Kettering Health experienced an unscheduled downtime for most of its IT applications. While planned maintenance and updates are routine and occur on an ongoing basis, fortunately, an event of this type has been rare for Kettering Health."
He reassured the community that team members are "diligently" following established downtime protocols and that any patient appointments relying on IT applications will be rescheduled.
On Tuesday, Kettering Health announced thatunauthorized access to its network had led to an outage affecting its call center and access to essential patient care systems.
This incident resulted in the cancellation and rescheduling of both elective inpatient and outpatient procedures.
Additionally, Kettering Health confirmed reports of scam calls occurring in the aftermath of the outage, with individuals posing as network team members and soliciting credit card payments for medical expenses. while it is standard practice for employees to contact patients about payment options, all calls were canceled until further notice due to the incident.
Gentry noted that healthcare outages like the one Kettering Health is facing typically last between 10 to 20 days.
He expressed gratitude for the support received from local area health systems.
"We want to publicly express our appreciation to the network of Greater Dayton and northern Cincinnati hospitals and health systems, particularly Dayton Children’s and Premier Health, as they have partnered with us to care for the community during this time," Gentry stated in Friday's message.
Gentry said Kettering Health's emergency departments, hospitals and clinics remain open.
The company also released an update on Friday, directing patients and employees to access Kettering Health’s retail pharmacies and staff through temporary contact numbers available on their website.
Procession and Funeral of Deputy Larry Henderson
English (US) ·