Kettering Health is making significant progress in its recovery from a ransomware cyberattack that occurred on May 20, causing a system-wide technology outage. During the second week of the outage, the hospital system has been gradually restoring various departments and services.
Services for existing Kettering Health patients and emergency medical services (EMS) were restored last week as the organization implemented temporary work-arounds and returned to paper charting for patient care. According to industry experts, ransomware attacks typically take between 10 to 20 days to resolve.
One of the most significant recent developments is the hospital’s ability to stop diverting ambulances from its emergency departments, allowing these departments to become fully operational again. “This is another great milestone in our recovery process,” said John Weimer, Kettering Health senior vice president and incident command leader. “Our teams have worked incredibly hard to bring imaging up, so we could end diversion in our emergency departments.”
While Kettering Health announced the end of EMS diversion, the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association clarified that EMS continues to coordinate with hospitals to determine the most appropriate facilities for patient transfers based on medical needs. EMS maintains close communication with hospital emergency departments, adjusting transport routes according to capacity and service availability.
The radiation oncology department has also resumed radiation therapy treatments after successfully restoring its radiation technology. “We are now treating patients who had active radiotherapy again,” stated Dr. Anthony Paravati, chief of radiation oncology at Kettering Health, in a video message.
Kettering Health is encouraging patients to attend their scheduled appointments and surgeries unless contacted by their clinical team to reschedule. The hospital’s doctors’ offices are now able to accommodate walk-in patients, and both primary and specialty care locations are providing care to established patients on a walk-in basis.
To address patient needs during this period, Kettering Health has established temporary phone lines. These include a clinical support line at 937-600-6879, staffed by nurses from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and an after-hours service for urgent medical needs through MatchMD at 1-866-257-5363. Temporary contact numbers for retail pharmacies are available on the Kettering Health website.
Despite these advances, patients continue to experience difficulties accessing MyChart, the online patient portal. An investigation into potential data breaches remains ongoing, with Kettering Health reporting no evidence of compromised patient information as of May 23.
The hospital system, which includes 14 medical centers and over 120 outpatient locations across Western Ohio, is working to minimize the impact on staff. All employees will continue to receive their scheduled payments, with HR guidance provided to address any payroll discrepancies. Kettering Health’s incident command center is actively addressing staff and patient concerns, while campus police have increased their presence at hospital locations.
