Public Notifications To Begin Into Affected Data From Hospital Cyber Attack
The review of affected data from the cyber attack at Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, and Windsor Regional Hospital, along with their shared services provider, TransForm Shared Service Organization, is now complete. Individuals are being notified if their information is impacted.
This cyber attack took place on October 23rd, 2023, and impacted each hospital individually. Except for Bluewater Health, Electronic Medical Records were not impacted. However, personal health information stored elsewhere on their systems was involved, including patient and, for some organizations, employee information.
Officials say that individuals will start to receive letters in the mail during the week of April 8th from hospital providers if their information was stolen by cyber criminals during the attack.
The following is the approximate number of patients per hospital that will receive notification by letter.
- Bluewater Health: 82,000
- Chatham-Kent Health Alliance: 69,000
- Erie Shores HealthCare: 102,000
- Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare: 46,000
- Windsor Regional Hospital: 27,800
If a patient was seen at multiple hospitals, they will receive multiple letters, so there is likely overlap in these totals.
The approach of notifying individuals has been implemented in communication with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.
