CrowdStrike software outage prompts cancellations at major NJ hospital network

Hospitals at one of New Jersey's largest health care systems are delaying some procedures for patients Friday due to the global software outage that has affected hospitals along with airlines, banks and other industries across the globe.

Some clinical and patient computer systems at RWJBarnabas hospitals were not working correctly Friday morning due to a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that is causing Microsoft Windows systems to crash.

It has also disrupted the telephone system at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and Monmouth Medical Center, said Robert Cavanaugh, a spokesman for RWJBarnabas, which operates 12 hospitals across the state.

Technicians are making repairs after receiving instructions from Microsoft, but some patients are having appointments and procedures canceled, he said.

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"As patient safety is our highest priority and out of an abundance of caution, we are delaying some procedures for patients until this situation is resolved," Cavanaugh said in a statement.

Almost every emergency department at more than 70 New Jersey hospitals were operating normally as of midday Friday, according to a website that tracks them.

Other hospital systems across the state said the outage is having little impact. Among them:

• Hackensack Meridian Health, which operates 18 hospitals, said operations and patient-facing systems have not been directly impacted because the network uses many Google platforms, said Ben Goldstein, a spokesman.
• Bergen New Bridge in Paramus, the state's largest hospital, has experienced some outages but the emergency room and all of its departments are running normally, said Donnalee Corrieri, a spokeswoman. "It has not affected patient care and all procedures and appointments are continuing as scheduled," she said.
• Valley Health, which recently moved its hospital to Paramus, has not been impacted by the outage, although some vendors using CrowdStrike may have, said Erin Blake Hunter, a spokeswoman. "Procedures are in place to mitigate such risks should we learn of any impact," she said.
• Atlantic Health, which runs seven hospitals in New Jersey including Morristown Medical Center and Chilton Medical Center, has not been impacted severely by the outage, said Karen Zatorski, a spokeswoman. "At the moment clinical services across the system remain operational and the safe delivery of high-quality patient care remains our focus," she said.
• St. Joseph's Health in Paterson has had its computer systems impacted, but "patient care has not been impacted and our hospitals, physician practices and outpatient facilities remain open," said Pamela Garretson, a spokeswoman.
• Englewood Health is maintaining normal operations with the outages having a limited impact on a few computer systems.

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