Kettering Health expands walk-in availability to specialty care sites during ongoing tech outage

A cyberattack on May 20 caused a system-wide technology outage at Kettering Health. Administrators believe the cyberattack was ransomware, though they did not have direct contact with the perpetrators.

These types of cyberattack generally take between 10-20 days to fix, according to industry experts.

Kettering Health campus police have increased patrols during tech outage

Kettering Health’s campus police has been doing extra patrols and been more visible on hospital campuses, said Kettering Health police Lt. Jim Beeler in a video on Kettering Health’s social media.

“(With) safety being the primary goal, we’ve upped our patrols, our foot patrols, our perimeter patrols and our interior patrols,” Beeler said. “We’re also more present in the areas where we tend to have the biggest need.”

Kettering Health’s campus police had already scheduled more of its officers to be working due to the city of Dayton hosting the NATO Spring Parliamentary Assembly last week, Beeler said. This meant they already had extra staff available to help with the increased patrols when the cyberattack brought down Kettering Health’s tech systems.

“Police overall tend to just roll with the punches, so whatever they ask of us, we’re happy to help,” Beeler said.

Help for patients

Kettering Health launched temporary phone lines to help its patients get in contact with the hospital system if patients had medical needs. Those include:

For medical emergencies, patients are urged to go to the nearest emergency department.

Kettering Health has 14 area medical centers and more than 120 outpatient locations throughout Western Ohio, as well as Kettering Physician Network, which includes more than 700 board-certified providers.