Archive photo of JPS Hospital on May 6, 2020, in Fort Worth
STAR-TELEGRAM ARCHIVES
A network outage due to detected “suspicious activity” at the John Peter Smith Hospital system lasted almost two weeks, and some patients are facing lasting consequences.
JPS Health Network continued to operate under a “controlled network downtime” that started on Aug. 3, the hospital communicated through social media.
While the health system’s hospital, clinics and other locations remained open, online services and phone lines were affected. Under the controlled network downtime, doctors, nurses and other staff used established manual procedures to provide care while technology systems were unavailable.
Many people on social media expressed frustration over not being able to access charting portals, scheduling, prescriptions and other critical care. Some also said the outage was affecting payroll for care providers.
Other concerns reported on social media involved not being able to get prescribed critical medication without an original paper copy of the prescription. While the hospital did not directly communicate that, many community members said they learned that only after arriving at the pharmacy to receive their medications.
JPS also takes care of inmates’ medical needs at the Tarrant County Jail. When asked about delays inmates might have faced during the outage, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said that is something JPS has to answer.
It is unclear how much financial impact the outage had and the long-lasting impacts. While JPS’ core network was reported to be restored on Friday, Aug. 14, some social media users reported not being able to access online charts. JPS has said that patients should be able to log into MyChart as of Aug. 16.
JPS did not respond to Star-Telegram requests for comment regarding how patients are being accommodated moving forward and what measures are being taken to ensure a system outage does not happen again.
Elizabeth Miller, a community activist and longtime patient at JPS, told the Star-Telegram that she was unaware of the outage until her 80-year-old father was hospitalized.
Miller said that when they arrived at the hospital, the computers were down, and people were not immediately being treated because employees seemed to think the outage might be fixed at any moment, so they just waited.
At the pharmacy, Miller had to pay exact change to get her medications and only received 30 days of refill because the pharmacy was running out of some meds and couldn’t order more, she said. Miller said she was worried about fellow community members who have critical illnesses and might not be getting their medicine.
Miller said the experience was “absurd” because it was not just the main hospital affected, it was the countywide system.
“To be in the 10th-largest city in the country and have our hospital thought so poorly of is not good. We need to make it everybody’s political problem because this cannot happen again,” Miller said. “I definitely understand how technology issues happen. I don’t understand how we can’t have a backup system that kicks in quicker than this.”
Another patient, Jamie Walker, told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV last week that she has run out of 12 medications.
Walker said when she tried to refill her prescriptions through JPS, she was told the computer system to bill insurance for medications still was not working, leaving her with the choice of paying full price or going without her medicine.
In a statement on its website, the health system said, “We thank everyone for the outpouring of support during this disruption of our routine operations. We are grateful to our patients and families for their patience, our community partners and hospitals for their support, and our JPS team members for their extraordinary commitment to provide exceptional care for the people who count on JPS every day.”
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Shambhavi covers crime, law enforcement and other breaking news in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. She graduated from the University of North Texas and previously covered a variety of general assignment topics in West Texas. She grew up in Nepal.