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St. Anthony providers again have access to patient records

Providers at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor are once again able to access the electronic health records of patients, according to a statement from a public relations firm representing its parent company.

CommonSpirit Health, which owns St. Anthony and other Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities in Washington state, took some systems offline following what the system initially called an “IT security incident” in early October. A subsequent statement referred to the incident as a ransomware attack.

The most recent statement, issued Monday evening, indicated that access to the MyChart patient portal “is expected to be available in the coming days.”

During the outage, patients experienced delays, postponements and treatments that took longer than usual. MyChart access was offline, and patients reported seeing medical staff using pen and paper to update medical records.

“Throughout this process, we have taken steps to protect our systems and maintain continuity of care. We are only taking steps to restore systems when it is safe and secure to do so,” the statement issued Monday said. “We thank our patients, clinicians, team members and the community for their patience.”

St. Anthony Hospital. Ed Friedrich / Gig Harbor Now