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CHI Health dealing with IT security issue leaving local patients unable to schedule appointments

Posted at 7:16 PM, Oct 04, 2022
and last updated 2022-10-04 20:16:14-04

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — People were seen going in and out of Bergan Mercy Hospital on Tuesday night but we can't say what is going on inside, other than an IT security issue that is impacting facilities all across the country.

An IT security incident is being felt across the metro.

"So I ended up calling CHI, several times. His family doctor is at CHI on 31st and Broadway and they said well our computers have been down since Monday at one o'clock in the morning," said Council Bluffs resident Christine McIntosh.

Christine's husband suffers from a disease that causes vertigo, he took a fall on Saturday morning after kinking his neck the day before.

"So I gave him medicine every so many hours and he seemed better but his neck was stiff," McIntosh said.

On Monday morning she called CHI.

"I called his heart doctor who said I'm sorry we are not scheduling any new appointments because our computers are down,"

She continued to call other locations and got the same response. She was told that the computers are down and there was an IT breach on the security system, "they are going to be working on it," McIntosh said.

In a statement, CHI said they have taken certain IT systems offline which may include electronic health record systems.

I asked CHI if scheduled surgeries or appointments have been impacted and they did not answer that question.

Christine was told she could take her husband to urgent care.

"Urgent care, you can go to urgent care, walk-in, we can take care of what we can without the computer," McIntosh said.

Christine said for now her husband will go to a doctor outside of CHI until systems are up and running again for a neck scan.

"They've been polite and courteous and they don't want to do no harm by. Oh I think you have this but are you taking this, and the medicine, they can't guess," McIntosh said.

We have not heard any confirmation on when the systems will be back up and running. But CHI did confirm Tuesday afternoon that Bergan Mercy Hospital is still taking trauma patients.

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