A major provider of off-site radiology services — including professional interpretations of X-rays for more than 100 healthcare facilities in and around Minnesota — have been offline this week, victim to an apparent cyber-attack.

Sunday evening was a difficult one for doctors at several Allina Health hospitals and clinics, who lost contact with Consulting Radiologists, LTD of Eden Prairie. During the past work week, impacted Allina facilities have had to rely upon in-house radiology services, which in some cases are more limited.

“They provide diagnostic reads of imaging for us, but it’s not at all sites,” said Conny Bergerson, a spokesperson for Allina. “It’s at several sites. It’s not all of our clinics, but it’s a big portion of our clinics that we partner with CRL.”

Small healthcare facilities without an in-house radiologist appear to be most affected. Nevertheless, physicians associated with Glencoe Regional Health and Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia, which are not Allina hospitals, have had to divert stroke and trauma patients to other facilities.

Allina maintains a heart institute at Glencoe but uses its own cardiologists there to review medical images, Bergerson said. At some Allina clinics and hospitals, “people have had to put in extra times for diagnostics, but none of our sites have had to divert patients,” she said.

The problem appears to have begun Sunday when hackers targeted Consulting Radiologists, LTD, which employs 175 board-certified radiologists to provide medical interpretations to hospitals and health systems across the state. The company’s phone lines were still offline on Thursday morning, and a notice on its website indicated, “We are currently experiencing issues with our phone systems.”

“We actually have no way to contact them,” said a Glencoe Regional Health medical provider on Thursday morning, speaking on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to represent the health system to the press.

Radiologists are medical doctors who diagnose injuries and diseases using the results of medical imaging such as X-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds. Rather than maintain a large roster of in-house radiologists, health systems have increasingly taken to outsourcing the service to private off-site providers.

That’s exposed a vulnerability. Cyber-attacks on imaging clinics and other radiology providers have become increasingly common, impacting some 54 public hospitals in Ireland associated with the country’s Health Service Executive system in 2021. The Florida-based Akumin radiology network — a national provider to 1,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems — fell victim last October.

The American Hospital Association reported that cyber-attacks aimed at healthcare organizations, while not increasing in volume, have become more damaging, with data breaches impacting a record 106 million people last year — or one-in-three Americans — up from 44 million the year before.

Related Articles

17% of US adults have noise-induced hearing loss. A new study uncovers a biologic reason

Can this new padding improve bike, football helmet safety?

‘A horrible, perfect storm’: Frustrations rise as shortage of Adderall, other ADHD medication continues

Mental health emerges as a dividing line in abortion rights initiatives planned for state ballots

Tuberculosis cases rise, but public health agencies say they lack the resources to keep up