Kaiser Permanente claims system-wide outage was not a cyberattack

Kaiser Permanente healthcare network on Thursday said a system-wide outage that impacted patient e-health records across hundreds of locations – and even had medical staff resort to paper and pen – appears to have been caused by technical issues, as opposed to a full-on cyberattack.

“We are pleased to report that all Kaiser Permanente technology applications are back online and fully functional,” the nation's largest health plan posted on its website Thursday.

The San Francisco Bay area-based healthcare conglomerate credited its technical teams for “resolving the issue that caused intermittent network interruptions,” although it did not provide any further details or identify what the “issue” was.

Kaiser spokesperson Kathleen Campini Chambers, in an earlier statement, attributed the disruption to an issue "at one of our data centers," The Verge reported.

“Our evaluation thus far does not suggest this was a cybersecurity incident," Kaiser Permentnte said, adding that it is continuing to monitor the network “to ensure ongoing system stability.”

Kaiser Permanente provides healthcare coverage for over 12.5 million members across eight states and the nation’s capital, including California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia, Oregon, and Washington.

E-health records and patient services down

With 40 hospitals and over 600 medical offices, the organization had announced disruptions to its electronic health records systems and various patient services, including pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, payment systems, and call center systems throughout most of Wednesday.

Medical staff were reported to be using paper and pen at some Kaiser hospitals and pharmancy centers.

Some employees took to social media asking folks to be patient with staff while the outage was happening, while others commiserated with Kaiser employees experiencing the same disruptions at locations in different states.

“Not sure if it’s just northern but Kaiser system is down. I know our call center can’t do much at this time. Wait times are going to be extremely long…,” one employee from California posted on Reddit.

“Same in WA. Please be nice if you’re calling in to the contact center. We’re doing our best.😭,” another worker responded from Washington state.

Kaiser's post on Thursday warned patients to expect minor delays due to high call volume and backlog, as well as delays for some laboratory testing and pharmacy services over the next 24 hours, but noted that “all other technology applications are back online and functional.”

Founded in 1945, the healthcare organization is comprised of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Permanente Medical Groups, as well as Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and subsidiaries employing over 100,000 doctors and nurses and more than 240,000 medical and support staff.

Last April, Kaiser Permanente suffered a data breach compromising the information of more than 13.4 million patients. Kaiser blamed the cyber incident on unauthorized access via previously installed third-party trackers on its websites and mobile applications.

Campini Chambers told Cybernews Kaiser's investigation at the time had determined the trackers "may have transmitted personal information to third-party vendors Google, Microsoft Bing, and X (Twitter) when members and patients accessed its websites or mobile applications."

Kaiser Permanente “deeply apologized” for Wednesday’s network disruption, stating its “patients' health and safety are always our top priority.”