Glitch knocks out phones and Internet

A software glitch left the Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) without phones or Internet for at least eight hours.

It started around 2 p.m. Thursday, according to CEO Dan Florizone.

“It’s not every system, but it’s most of the important and critical ones,” Florizone said at a news conference.

The problem was region-wide, affecting phones and Internet at hospitals in Saskatoon, Humboldt, Watrous, Wadena, Wynyard, Nokomis and the West Winds health centre, as well as Internet at all 30 longterm care facilities in the region. As of press time, the phones had been restored but other systems were still out, according to SHR spokeswoman Linda Walker.

The glitch was in the high-level network platform software, designed by multinational corporation Cisco Systems Inc., through which the health region’s Internet, networking and phone systems flow. As a result, health care workers were unable to share information — test results, medical history, X-rays, prescriptions — between computers. Information that would normally be sent electronically instead had to be copied onto disks and run from one area to another.

“This is really about the networking. We are down in terms of that ability to send (information) electronically. We are now in a very lowtech mode,” Florizone said.

Florizone said that while the problem caused minutes-long delays, it did not stop surgeries or other procedures from taking place. Emergency rooms were running and able to take patients as normal and 911 was not affected.

It also did not effect building systems such as heating, ventilation and electricity. Those systems are run by a different platform, Florizone said.

Thursday’s outage was not the first indication of a problem. Last weekend SHR encountered what Florizone called “a scare,” a similar outage that lasted less than an hour. Technicians were able to fix the problem, but knew at the time the fix was a “Band-Aid,” or short-term solution.

Florizone said SHR did not yet know what caused the outage.

“That’s the million dollar question right there, is let’s try and get a clear understanding from (Cisco). We’ll do an after review to ensure that all steps are taken to avoid this sort of thing in the future,” Florizone said.