A widespread technology outage on Friday, seemingly linked to issues at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft, disrupted operations at airports, airlines, banks and even hospitals, including several in Canada.
A software update by CrowdStrike appeared to have triggered systems problems across the world, and many hospitals said they were impacted by the outage.
Some health networks in Canada turned to social media to update patients on the outage, while Global News reached out via email to hospitals nationwide to assess the impact.
Here is a list of hospitals in Canada impacted so far.
University Health Network: Toronto
The University Health Network (UHN), which includes several hospitals and clinics in Ontario such as Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital, announced on Friday that it was affected by the outage.
“The worldwide CrowdStrike outage is impacting some systems at UHN. Clinical activity is continuing as scheduled, but some patients may experience delays. Please contact your care team with questions,” UHN posted on X.
Sunnybrook Hospital: Toronto
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Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto is also affected by the outage, a spokesperson told Global News.
“Like many organizations, Sunnybrook has been affected by the worldwide CrowdStrike outage,” the spokesperson said in a Friday email.
“Clinical activity is continuing as scheduled at all Sunnybrook sites, but patients may experience delays. Patients with appointments today should leave extra time and we appreciate their understanding. Work is underway to restore impacted computer systems.”
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO): Ottawa
CHEO in Ottawa has been affected by the outage, a spokesperson told Global News on Friday.
“While CHEO has been affected by the Crowdstrike global outage, we are providing services as planned using workarounds where needed. We do not anticipate any impact on our services offered to children and their families today,” the spokesperson said.
Queensway Carleton Hospital: Ottawa
Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) in Ottawa was also hit by the outage, a spokesperson told Global News on Friday.
“QCH was impacted by the CrowdStrike issue from 1:30 am to 5:45 am this morning. During that time, we experienced an outage of our electronic health record system. Staff moved to our established downtime charting procedures and continued to provide great care. The system has since been restored to normal operations,” the spokesperson said.
“There are no impacts to planned services and appointments — everything is moving forward as scheduled,” she added.
NL Health Services: Newfoundland
In an online post on Friday, NL Health Services said the outage is impacting its main information system used to manage patient care and finances.
“NL Health Services advises the public that a global IT system issue is affecting some of its IT services province wide. Several IT systems are currently affected, including Meditech, the main information system used to manage patient care and finance information,” the statement read.
“NL Health Services has implemented contingency plans and is focused on the delivery of emergency care as we work with our global partners to resolve the outage. This interruption in service is expected to impact the availability of some health-care services. Regular updates will be provided as more information becomes available.”
Vancouver Coastal Health: Vancouver
Vancouver Coast Health, which encompasses numerous health networks in British Columbia, including Mount St. Joseph Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital, reported being affected by the outage.
In a post on X on Friday, the regional health author said its B.C. health system has been impacted by the global Crowdstrike disruption.
“Please contact your provider if you have any questions about your care delivery today,” the post read.
“Our primary concern is the continuity and quality of patient care. We have implemented contingency plans to ensure that our health care services remain operational and that patient care is not disrupted to the best of our ability. Please refer back to our website for updates. If you have any questions on a healthcare appointment today, please call your healthcare providers. Please do not call hospital Switchboard at this time.”
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