Microsoft global outage forces health systems to cancel appointments, delay procedures Katie Palmer Brittany Trang Casey Ross By Katie Palmer , Brittany Trang , and Casey Ross July 19, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/07/19/microsoft-crowdstrike-outage-hospitals-cancellations/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_veP7T5cjL6TEUYbkGswhZjIAWuhHdQ7iknOIHC24novGQHYglGcJuu9QZ2_XWmdyzMoLIvX5Hgw1aNvAKt8jGMXzB6A&_hsmi=316676560&utm_content=316676560&utm_source=hs_email Health systems scramble after global outages A global outage to Microsoft systems disrupted care at health systems across the country Friday, STAT’s health tech team reports. Hospital networks including Mass General Brigham canceled all non-urgent appointments and surgeries. Others, like Cincinnati Children’s, were able to keep a regular schedule, but warned about delays. The issue seemingly stemmed from a software update by the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, which then disabled computers running Microsoft Windows. While the use of Microsoft machines and software is extensive in health care, some systems, like Johns Hopkins Medicine, were not affected. Studies show that patient outcomes during cyberattacks are worse — and while this outage isn’t a hack, it still cripples many of the same systems. Read more on the latest.