Hospitals Cancel Procedures, Find Manual Workarounds Amid Microsoft Outage

Hospitals are reportedly among the organizations being hit hard by the Microsoft system outage that began Thursday (July 18).

A survey of hospitals around the world found that many are delaying procedures and finding manual workarounds for tasks that are normally done digitally, Bloomberg reported Friday (July 19).

Without the digital systems they normally use, hospitals are having trouble booking patient appointments and checking medical records, the report said, pausing the start of procedures that require anesthesia, canceling electric procedures and closing outpatient clinics, according to the report.

Before being restored, New Hampshire’s 911 services were unable to answer incoming calls, the report said.

The report also found hospitals having to have staff handle tasks normally done by digital self-check-in systems, use paper and phones, and prepare paper patient records, per the report.

As PYMNTS reported earlier Friday, the outage of Microsoft’s Windows operating system began late Thursday and was caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s software update.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a Friday post on X that the outage was caused by “a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” that Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted, and that this “is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

In another post on X, added around noon Eastern time on Friday, Kurtz said: “All of CrowdStrike continues to work closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure that all systems are restored.”

In a blog post on the CrowdStrike website, Kurtz added: “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives. Our blog and technical support will continue to be the official channels for the latest updates.”

The outage caused by the update disrupted computer systems at businesses and public services around the world, Bloomberg reported.

“This is unprecedented. The economic impact is going to be huge,” Alan Woodward, professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said in that report.

Other companies impacted by the outage include UPS and FedEx. Both companies posted messages on their websites on Friday saying that package deliveries may be delayed due to the software outage.