Survey of Laboratory Medicine's national response to the HSE cyberattack in the Republic of Ireland.
Ir J Med Sci
; 193(2): 889-896, 2024 Apr.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37737914
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
On Friday 14 May 2021, the Health Service Executive (HSE) was subjected to a serious cyberattack on their information technology (IT) infrastructure. Healthcare workers lost access to HSE-provided clinical and non-clinical IT systems, including laboratory systems.AIM:
The aim of this national survey was to capture Laboratory Medicine's response across the Republic of Ireland during the HSE cyberattack.METHOD:
An electronic survey developed using Microsoft Forms® was emailed on 24 September 2021 to 58 local representatives of the PeriAnalytic and Laboratory Medicine Society (PALMSoc).RESULTS:
The survey was sent to 43 clinical laboratories across the Republic of Ireland. A total of 41 responses from 43 laboratories across all laboratory disciplines were received (95% response rate). From these, 55% did not have access to a functioning LIS, with 56% of these not having access to a LIS for greater than 2 weeks. A decrease in specimen requests received during this period was reported by 74% of laboratories, with 32% experiencing a reduction that lasted in excess of one month. Over half of the laboratories (55%) experienced a reduction of > 30% in requests, indicating that clinicians stopped investigating patients (87% reduction in primary care), further escalating the disruption to healthcare.CONCLUSION:
The cyberattack burdened the HSE and laboratories at a time when healthcare staffs were coming to terms with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the survey confirms the agility of laboratory staff in meeting the demands placed on it during this time.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pandemics
/
Laboratories
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Ir J Med Sci
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ireland