This story has been updated to include comments from Northwell Health.
Allscripts is investigating a ransomware attack impacting a "limited number" of applications, according to a company spokesperson.
“We are working diligently to restore these systems, and most importantly, to ensure our clients’ data is protected,” Allscripts spokesperson Concetta Rasiarmos said in an email to FierceHealthcare. “Although our investigation is ongoing, there is currently no evidence that any data has been removed from our systems. We regret any inconvenience caused by this temporary outage.”
Rasiarmos did not respond to questions about what specific applications were impacted.
RELATED: Physician practices forced to use paper records lash out at Allscripts over ransomware response
The attack was first reported by HIStalk which received a tip from an Allscripts user that the attack shut down applications hosted on two data centers in North Carolina, including Allscripts Professional EHR platform and some e-prescribing systems.
FierceHealthcare will update this story as it develops.
Update 1/19:
A spokesperson for Northwell Health says the health system disconnected from Allscripts data centers impacted by the attack to avoid any complications. Northwell has not lost connectivity to its EHR platform since it is hosted on its own data center, but providers are unable to access e-prescribing applications.
"We have lost access to certain functionalities, the major one being electronic prescribing of narcotics, which just means physicians need to write narcotics prescriptions on paper prescription pads temporarily," says Northwell Health spokesperson Terence Lynam.
A physician with Kansas-based Sunflower Medical Group also posted on Twitter that e-prescribing functionality was down.
#ransomware attack on Allscripts has taken down our e-prescribing, EPCS and some other services! Yikes!! At least we don’t use their hosted application I hear many hosted practices couldn’t access their EMR yesterday. Talk about a shutdown!
— Yvette Crabtree (@YCrabtreeMD) January 19, 2018
A message posted to Allscripts' e-prescribe portal, the company said it was working to restore Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) functionality.
"Please note that EPCS users in New York or other EPCS mandated states, pursuant to the state EPCS statute, write paper scripts due to a temporary technical difficulty with the EPCS service," according to the notice posted to the site. "It is recommended you note the pharmacist special instructions and in the EHR that a paper or oral prescription was provided due to technical issues."