ISRAEL, IRAN BREAK CEASEFIRE
ISRAEL, IRAN BREAK CEASEFIRE
President Donald Trump says he is "not happy with Israel" after it violated an hours-old ceasefire agreement with Iran.
In response to the widespread sweltering heat and humidity, some Maine communities are opening cooling centers.
'It's a mess': Maine patients look for answers while hospitals deal with cyber incidents
PORTLAND (WGME) – At least five Maine hospitals are dealing with some sort of cyber incident right now.
Two of those hospitals, Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary's, are in Lewiston.
Those hospitals were forced to shut down many of their systems to prevent a possible breach.
CMMC patients say they want to know what's behind the computer issues and cancelled surgeries and appointments.
The hospital has released limited information and is not answering many of CBS13’s questions.
It's now been 11 days since a cyber incident forced Central Maine Healthcare to shut down its computers, phones and scheduling software.
A hospital spokesman says they're still not sure if this was a cyber breach.
The hospital says on June 1, "Technicians monitoring information systems identified unusual activity within the system's computer software. In response, they immediately secured and shut off all information technology applications and hardware, including network servers and phone systems."
Wednesday, many of those systems remain offline.
Patients say their surgeries and appointments were canceled.
Tom Powell doesn't know when his knee replacement surgery might be rescheduled.
"’They can't coordinate the scheduling, because they can't get through their computer system to schedule things,' she said. And I said, 'Well, you've been hacked.' 'Yeah, we know that,'" Powell said.
Central Maine Healthcare's CEO says while work continues to bring the systems back online:
"Our hospitals continue to treat patients in our emergency departments, admit critically ill patients to our ICU and see patients in all of our physician practices. We are prioritizing restoring services to certain outpatient diagnostic services and our retail pharmacy, which have limited capability."
A spokesperson says many phone lines have been restored, with 12 more added on Wednesday. They are able to accept patient calls at Central Maine Medical Center, Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital and primary care practices.
However, phones and computers are still offline at its Lewiston pharmacy, but it remains open.
"About a week ago, I wasn't getting prescriptions that should have been refilled,” Central Maine Healthcare patient Bob Barnard said. “So I kept calling. And finally, I called the front desk, and they said that the phones are down and all that. So here I am."
"I tried to call in,” Central Maine Healthcare patient James Malcuit said. “Couldn't get through to the pharmacy. So I brought my prescriptions down and they filled them for free, so that's a pretty good deal to me. They're trying to at least make up for the problem."
Pharmacy staff say they can only fill prescriptions in person, and only if you bring in a refill bottle or new prescription.
"I know it's a mess," Malcuit said.
Covenant Health confirms a cyber attack hit St. Mary's Hospital in Lewiston and St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor and says they're still trying to resolve the issue.
Central Maine Healthcare recently launched a temporary website where people can get updates on its system shutdown.
