Global IT outage affects health systems, other sectors

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Widespread IT outages worldwide are affecting hospitals and health systems, with some patient surgeries and appointments being postponed.

The outage is being caused by a faulty software update, and its disrupting hospitals, along with banks and airlines, as flights are being grounded, the Associated Press and other media outlets are reporting.

The issue is related to an update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, but it’s affecting computers with Microsoft Windows, the AP reports. CrowdStrike says the issue isn’t tied to a cyberattack and the company is developing a fix.

Mass General Brigham said it has canceled its non-urgent visits at all its hospitals and clinics Friday. Mass General says it can’t access clinical systems, patient health records and scheduling. “We are working to resolve this issue. We apologize for the inconvenience,” Mass General said.

Memorial Sloan Kettering said in a post on its website that it has procedures to continue providing care due to the worldwide disruption. “At this time, we are pausing the start of any procedure that requires anesthesia,” the system said. “We are in the process of calling patients with appointments that are affected. If you have not been notified, please proceed to your scheduled appointment.”

Penn Medicine said some of its appointments “need to be canceled and rescheduled” due to the outage. “We are making every effort to contact patients whose appointments need to be canceled,” the system said. Penn Medicine said hospitals, including emergency departments, are fully staffed.

England’s National Health Service said the outage disrupted most family practice surgeries on Friday, including digital appointment and patient record systems, The Washington Post reports. Israel’s Health Ministry said the outage has affected more than a dozen hospitals, the Post reported. Two hospitals in Germany postponed elective procedures that were scheduled for Friday, Reuters reported.

Cincinnati Children’s said some appointments were affected but resumed appointments later in the morning. “We ask for your patients as our teams are continuing to work as quickly as possible to restore all computer systems and functions across all locations, however, delays may still occur and should be planned for whenever possible,” the organization said.

George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, said Friday in a post on X that “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

More than 22,000 flights were delayed worldwide, The Washington Post reports.