Point Edward woman blames hospital cyberattack for prescription mix-up

A Point Edward woman says she was prescribed an antibiotic to which she is allergic at Bluewater Health – and the recent cyberattack may be to blame.

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Margaret Buist says her daughter called the hospital after the mix-up and was told it occurred because hospital personnel couldn’t access Buist’s electronic medical records.

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Buist said she was coughing up blood Nov. 3 when she was taken by ambulance to Bluewater Health on her doctor’s recommendation.

After an X-ray, a doctor listened to her chest, told her it sounded tight and she needed antibiotics and a corticosteroid, she said.

The doctor asked if she had allergies and she listed moxifloxacin, an antibiotic that in the past had sent her into anaphylactic shock, she said.

“He said, ‘Yes, I know that,’” she recalled, which put her at ease. “It never occurred to me that they didn’t have access to my records.”

Buist was prescribed another antibiotic to which she is also allergic — she’s allergic to several medications, she said — but her pharmacy caught it and arranged to substitute another drug to which Buist wasn’t allergic.

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But it took another day and multiple faxes between hospital and pharmacy to resolve the mix-up before she got her medication, she said.

At no point during her hospital visit was she told officials couldn’t access her patient records, said the former nurse, who’s been following news of the cyberattack affecting five Southwestern Ontario hospitals.

“I didn’t realize it was still compromised,” she said of hospital access to patient information systems, Wi-Fi and email.

She’s sharing her story so other people are aware of current hospital limitations, she said, noting she’d have brought a list of her drug allergies had she known the extent of the cyberattack’s impact.

“People have to know that they don’t have access to your records,” she said. “It can be a really big problem if it’s something you’re allergic to.”

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Bluewater Health communications chief Keith Marnoch said he couldn’t discuss details of specific cases.

“Bluewater Health has multiple, built-in checks for all patient care procedures to identify and resolve issues, as illustrated in the example you’ve offered,” he said in a statement.

“The hospitals involved in the cyberattack will soon be updating the state of their digital systems in an effort to provide greater understanding of the current state of operations and restoration expectations.”

Notorious organized cybercrime gang Daixin Team has claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack detected Oct. 23.

The blackmailers targeted TransForm Shared Service Organization, which runs technology systems for Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Leamington’s Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, and Windsor Regional Hospital. The Windsor-Essex hospice was also affected.

Multiple batches of stolen data have been posted on the dark web.

Local police departments, the OPP, FBI and Interpol are all involved in the criminal probe.

With files from Trevor Wilhelm

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