(CBS DETROIT) – Ascension has reported that patients at its pharmacies are unable to fill prescriptions in light of a recent data breach that happened on May 8.
The data breach, which disrupted the computer system and consequently prevented prescriptions from being filled, has led to an increase in sales for nearby pharmacies.
“For the past week, they have been coming to us from their window at the hospital looking for my pharmacy,” said Paul Gera, a pharmacist at Hoover Pharmacy in Warren.
Gera’s pharmacy is across the street from Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital on Hoover, near 12 Mile.
Gera said Ascension patients have been coming into its pharmacy non-stop since the company announced a data breach on May 8.
“Usually they’ll go through the computer because somehow the computer system got messed up or something. I don’t know much, but they used handwritten recipes,” Gera said.
Gera said he hasn’t seen handwritten prescriptions from a hospital in years; they are usually sent electronically, but since the computers went down, Ascension doctors have been writing them by hand.
Since the May 8 cybersecurity attack, the health care system has announced that most patients have been able to make doctor appointments, but some have been diverted to other emergency facilities due to the disruption.
On Thursday it was announced that pharmacies were disrupted and prescriptions could not be filled.
No timeline has been given for the restoration of all services.
As Ascension continues to manage the national data breachGera said patients are welcome to get their medications at Hoover Pharmacy.
“We have all the medications with us. We are happy to help them with any number of scripts at any time,” Gera said.
According to reports, a class action lawsuit has been filed in Illinois and Texas, accusing the company of failing to encrypt patients’ personal data.
Ascension has denied that any patient data was compromised.
