Windsor-Essex hospitals restore most clinical systems after unprecedented global internet outage

Published Jul 20, 2024 • Last updated 15 hours ago • 2 minute read

The entrance to the Windsor Regional Hospital Ouellette campus emergency department is shown on Jan. 5, 2024. Less family doctors is a reason for more ER visits. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

The southwestern Ontario hospitals hit by the global internet outage have restored most of their clinical systems and said they hope to have non-clinical services back online over the weekend.

“As a region, we continue to make great progress restoring systems following a CrowdStrike global IT outage, which has been confirmed not to be a cyberattack,” the five hospitals and their shared service provider said in a media release.

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“The majority of clinical systems have been restored and remaining non-clinical systems will be completed over the weekend. While wait times have been reduced significantly due to these efforts, patients may experience minor delays over the course of the weekend. Hospitals will contact patients directly if there is an impact to appointments or procedures.”

Windsor Regional Hospital, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, and Transform Shared Services Organization were among organizations affected around the globe when a flawed cybersecurity program update took down Microsoft Corp. Systems.

The internet outage caused global disruptions to flights, banks, and hospitals. Issues and delays persisted for hours despite the technology company’s efforts to resolve the problem affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

In Windsor-Essex, there were massive delays at the border and warnings from hospitals of possible procedure cancellations and longer emergency room wait times.

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WINDSOR, ON. Friday, July 19, 2024 — Vehicles wait to enter the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in Windsor during an IT systems outage on Friday, July 19, 2024. Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star

Commuters reported that the wait time at the Windsor-Detroit tunnel was more than an hour. At least one flight at Windsor’s airport was cancelled.

Stressing that the incident was not a cyberattack, Windsor Regional Hospital said in a tweet Friday morning that “patients should expect delays in service and potential appointment cancellations following a Microsoft/CrowdStrike global IT outage.”

Along with a warning about longer than usual ER wait times, Windsor Regional said surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and diagnostic imaging patients would be contacted directly by their respective hospital if the outage affected their appointments or procedures.

Area hospitals issued another update later in the morning that TransForm, their shared IT service provider, was “working diligently on restoration efforts while staff in our hospitals use downtime procedures, including paper charting.”

A later update from the hospitals confirmed that most clinical systems had been restored.

“We thank you for your patience as we complete the restoration of our systems,” the hospitals said.

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A Windsor police officer directs traffic at the downtown entrance to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel on Friday, July 19, 2024, as a global internet outage played havoc on computer systems for border crossings, hospitals, airports and other public services. Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star