Local hospitals mostly unaffected by CrowdStrike fiasco
At least one local institution was affected by what has already been called the greatest IT outage in history, which occurred this weekend when the CrowdStrike cybersecurity software distributed a faulty software update which caused Windows computers to crash.
The UPMC health network issued a statement saying while they use the CrowdStrike software, only a small number of their computers were affected and patient care was not affected by the outage.
“UPMC has been impacted by the worldwide CrowdStrike cybersecurity outage affecting fewer than 10% of our Microsoft Windows-based devices at some of our facilities,” read a statement from UPMC spokesperson Karen Beardsley. “UPMC’s IT team intervened early to mitigate the problem and is restoring servers and PCs. Patient care has not been affected and our facilities are operational. Our emergency departments are open and appointments and procedures will proceed as scheduled.”
UPMC’s Butler County presence includes UPMC Passavant hospital in Cranberry Township, and the Hillman Cancer Center in Butler as well as several other facilities.
Meanwhile, Independence Health System, which includes the Butler Memorial Hospital, was almost entirely unaffected by the outages, according to a spokesperson who stated they do not use the CrowdStrike software in any capacity.
“We haven’t had any issues. Everything is in normal outages,” said Melissa Forster, marketing and communication specialist for IHS. “We didn’t experience any kind of problem.”
The grocery store chain Giant Eagle, which is headquartered in Cranberry Township, reported some problems with filling prescriptions at pharmacies. Otherwise, a company spokesperson said store operations at Giant Eagle and its other chains were proceeding as normal.
“Importantly, as noted by CrowdStrike, the vendor at the center of this global issue, this was not a cybersecurity or system integrity issue,” said Giant Eagle public relations director Dan Donovan. “Supermarket and GetGo guests were able to shop and fuel up in our Giant Eagle, Market District, and GetGo locations and via our online ordering systems as usual, though some of our pharmacies experienced slight delays in prescription fill time on Friday. We appreciated the understanding and patience of our guests as we worked quickly to resolve the technology issues.”
