Alberta Health Services says network outage caused by ‘routine maintenance’

A network outage that affected multiple hospitals in Alberta on Monday was caused by “routine maintenance,” according to a statement Wednesday from the province’s healthcare provider.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) says the outage affected hospitals and multiple clinical services that day. CityNews also received calls that some hospitals were without internet.

Later Monday evening, AHS said that services were carefully restored, and priority was given to patient care areas, like emergency departments.

AHS also says there’s “no indication that the technical outage was caused by hacking or any form of cyber-attack.”

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According to the group, a third-party review will begin “shortly,” which they say is to help determine the cause of the network outage and to prevent anything similar from happening again.

There is no word on when the review will be complete.

It says it is working with the vendor who did the maintenance to find out what happened.

“We are extremely grateful for the work of AHS staff and physicians who did an outstanding job in difficult circumstances to provide patient care,” the statement said.

A senior health official said Monday that doctors and staff at hospitals across Alberta had to use paper charts, whiteboards and phone calls to communicate with each other during the network outage.