How a ‘mistake’ by Oracle engineers caused software outage in US hospitals

Oracle engineers mistakenly triggered a five‐day software outage at multiple Community Health Systems (CHS) hospitals. The outage was tracked to the company’s Oracle Health electronic health record (EHR) system, forcing affected facilities to revert to paper‐based patient records. The incident started last week, when routine maintenance work led engineers to accidentally delete critical storage tied to a core database. CHS activated its downtime procedures as “several” hospitals went offline, with trade outlet Becker’s Hospital Review later reporting that 45 of CHS’s 72 hospitals were impacted. A CHS spokesperson has also confirmed the outage and has clarified that it stemmed solely from a maintenance error and was neither a cyberattack nor a security breach.
The spokesperson also noted that Oracle has restored full service of the system this week, once the deleted storage was rebuilt and data integrity verified. Based in Tennessee, CHS operates 72 hospitals across 14 states. The chain relies on Oracle Health’s EHR platform for digital patient records, scheduling, and clinical workflows. The EHR, which is a digital record of a patient’s medical history, is continuously updated by doctors and nurses. As a critical component of the US health-care infrastructure, any outage can severely disrupt patient care. Oracle cemented its position in the EHR market by acquiring Cerner for $28.3 billion in 2022, making it the second-largest provider after Epic Systems.

In a statement to CNBC, a CHS spokesperson said: “Despite this being a major outage, our hospitals were able to maintain services with no material impact. We are proud of our clinical and support teams who worked through the multi-day outage with professionalism and a commitment to delivering high-quality, safe care for patients.”
With Oracle’s systems now restored, CHS added that the affected hospitals are working to fully reinstate functionality and resume standard operations and procedures.
This CHS incident comes just weeks after Oracle’s federal EHR platform suffered a nationwide outage. The company has also grappled with a protracted, problem-plagued deployment of its EHR system at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where patient safety concerns prompted the VA to launch a strategic review of Cerner in 2021 (before Oracle’s acquisition) and to temporarily halt the software’s rollout in 2023.