CLEVELAND, Ohio — University Hospitals has restored its MyChart patient portal, bringing the system back online Saturday, November 7, sixteen days after a cybersecurity incident forced the Cleveland-based health system to disconnect its digital services, according to a University Hospitals statement reported by Lakeshore Views & News.
“This is an important milestone,” a statement from University Hospitals emailed to Lakeshore Views & News states. “For many of our patients and the public at large, the availability of MyChart is the sign that UH has recovered from the cybersecurity incident. This will make it easier for us to communicate with patients, get test results and get back to providing the kind of care our patients have relied on for 160 years,” the statement to Lakeshore Views & News said. WKYC in Cleveland reported the same restoration Saturday, saying UH announced that afternoon that the portal was accessible again.
The return comes with limits. Some MyChart features may not be fully functional at this time, and patients may see a slight delay in new test results and other information as MyChart data is reconciled and updated, according to the University Hospitals release reported by Lakeshore Views & News. UH said it is working to resolve those issues as soon as possible, in that same release.
“We are incredibly grateful for the patience of the people and community we serve while we have worked through this cybersecurity incident. We are also humbled by the dedication of so many caregivers across the organization,” the University Hospitals release reported by Lakeshore Views & News said. UH also apologized for the inconvenience, Lakeshore Views & News reported.
The incident began Thursday, October 22, when UH detected unusual activity on its servers, activated its response protocols and, out of an abundance of caution, disconnected its systems from the internet, according to University Hospitals’ official Cyber Incident page. Certain digital services, including MyChart, remained offline while UH investigated, and the system said it was working around the clock to restore access, that page said.
University Hospitals is a 21-hospital health system based in Cleveland, according to The HIPAA Journal’s November 4 report on the incident. For sixteen days, patients across Northeast Ohio could not view lab results through MyChart, though patients tested through Quest Diagnostics could still view results on Quest’s website, according to Becker’s Hospital Review and UH’s official page.
Care itself continued through the outage. UH hospitals, emergency departments and physician offices remained open, and the vast majority of appointments and procedures continued as normal, according to University Hospitals’ official Cyber Incident page, a point Becker’s Hospital Review confirmed in summarizing UH’s November 2 update. At the same time, the incident disrupted pre-authorizations and some appointments and elective procedures had to be rescheduled, according to The HIPAA Journal.
Daily life inside the system changed in smaller ways too. Because UH is a cashless facility, payment at the time of service was not possible while its servers were disconnected, video visits were moved to phone, Zoom or in-person visits, and when electronic prescribing was unavailable, providers printed, faxed or called in prescriptions while outpatient pharmacies remained open, according to Becker’s Hospital Review and UH’s official page. Phone lines stayed up but call volumes were very high with long hold times, and UH asked patients not to call just to verify an appointment, those sources said.
UH also warned patients during the outage that it will not call or text asking for banking information and urged them to be suspicious of scam or phishing messages, according to its official Cyber Incident page — a caution that remains relevant as systems come back online and patients resume normal portal use.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. What is confirmed: MyChart is accessible again as of November 7, some features remain limited, and new results may lag while data is reconciled, according to the University Hospitals statement reported by Lakeshore Views & News and confirmed by WKYC. What is not known: UH has not disclosed the type of attack or whether patient data was accessed, and no ransomware group appears to have claimed responsibility, according to The HIPAA Journal and Becker’s Hospital Review. No official source has confirmed a data breach, and readers should treat any claim that patient data was stolen as unconfirmed.
A timeline shows how long the recovery took. UH disconnected its systems October 22 and initially expected digital services to be affected for several days. In its November 2 update, UH said it was working to restore systems safely and did not have an estimated timeline for completion, according to its official page and Becker’s Hospital Review. By November 4, systems remained offline and the investigation was ongoing, according to The HIPAA Journal.
What happens next is the finish of the restoration: UH says it is still working to fully restore services and to resolve the remaining MyChart issues as soon as possible, according to its statement reported by Lakeshore Views & News. Patients logging in this week should expect the portal to work, but should allow extra time for new test results to appear while UH finishes reconciling its data.
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