Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

While the world frets over legal and clinical perils of the growing use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, cybersecurity may have become the IT genie already out of the bottle. Attacks on healthcare information systems are accelerating at an extraordinary pace, according to numerous reports. In one evaluation, a threat analyst for the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft found that cyberattacks on hospital systems last year nearly doubled from those of 2022, rising from 25 to 46. Those 46 systems represented a total of 141 affected hospitals. The paydays for criminal hackers and ransom seekers have gotten bigger too, with the average payout jumping from $5,000 in 2018 to $1.5 million in 2023. Another report said that about one in three Americans were affected by health-related data breaches in 2023. Increasing costs and healthcare cybersecurity worries have sparked draft national legislation aimed at boosting protections within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) purview. The bipartisan “Strengthening Cybersecurity in Health Care Act” by four senators would require the HHS to perform routine evaluations of its systems and deliver biannual reports on practices and progress. As an example of the severity of threats facing institutions, a ransomware gang last month gave a Chicago safety-net hospital two days to cough up $900,000 or else face a leak of its patient data. Another Chicago facility, Lurie Children’s Hospital, was forced to take its networks offline earlier this month in response to a likely ransomware attack. The response resulted in limited access to medical records and impaired phone and email communications. Hospitals and large health systems aren’t the only victims. A Colorado ophthalmology group experienced an attack affecting 6,000 patients, while the operator of more than 100 fertility clinics nationwide has proposed a $5.75 million settlement to resolve a data breach exposing the data of about 900,000 patients. And a respiratory homecare provider has proposed a $7.25 million settlement of a class action lawsuit over a breach affecting nearly 3 million patients. Meanwhile, Florida prosecutors have charged a 21-year-old with leading a scamming ring that allegedly hacked into doctors’ electronic prescribing accounts and wrote tens of thousands of bogus orders for addictive drugs. Officials say the scheme mainly involved oxycodone, promethazine, and codeine. The latter two can be used to create a recreational drug known as sizzurp or purple drank. Attacks not only increase dangers of drug misuse and medical mistakes but also expose patients to public embarrassment. Last year a leak at a Pennsylvania health network led hackers to post cancer patient photos to the dark web. Officials linked the action to Black Cat, a ransomware gang associated with Russia. A warning from HHS alleged that the group has demanded ransoms as high as $1.5 million per incident. In response to the wave of attacks, in January HHS unveiled a set of healthcare-specific cybersecurity performance goals aimed at helping the healthcare sector prioritize key security safeguards. The proposed “Strengthening Cybersecurity” legislation pending in the U.S. Senate would supplement those goals by requiring HHS to submit to Congress a report every two years describing how the agency is identifying and addressing vulnerabilities. Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Healthcare Docket newsletter. Click here to subscribe and read the full newsletter.

Prior to the growth, adoption and use of its patient portal, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago had only two entry points for patients looking to receive care – calling the centralized access center or walking into the emergency room. THE PROBLEM There were multiple phone numbers that linked to each of the separate specialties with complex phone trees that sometimes rerouted to the centralized access center or sometimes would land with the specialty that a patient was looking to schedule with. Regardless, it was a time-consuming process. Lurie Children’s patients and families experienced disjointed scheduling and registration problems and had a limited scope of appointment availability, leading to long delays in care. And with more than 50% of patients on Medicaid , time is difficult to come by for many parents and a scheduling opportunity to receive care at Lurie Children’s should not be a barrier to care, said Ravi Patel, vice president of digital health at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. PROPOSAL "A patient portal was proposed as part of our digital front door baseline platform, where we transformed the high-touch, phone-based system into an omnichannel engagement system and developed end-to-end functionality," Patel explained. "The digital front door strategy tied into the patient portal, interactive websites and marketing, two-way texting, and a singular phone system. "Within these different patient engagement systems, functions like digital registration, appointment scheduling, digital clinic visit tools, virtual care provision and feedback all became possible and integrated," he continued. "The proposal of this technology was to leverage the demand for digital services from our patients and providers." Most patient families prefer self-scheduling their medical care, paying online and having personalized communication tools – the digital front door offers all of that and seeks to optimize ambulatory operations, he added. "The digital transformation was staged in four phases over two years," Patel recalled. "Phase one was to increase adoption of the digital front door and its core functional capabilities, which consisted of functioning digital communications, online bill pay and medication refills. Having these services available was critical to increasing patient portal activation and driving users to effectively leverage the portal. "Setting up a robust education/support structure for both clinicians and patients should be prioritized and established before implementation." Ravi Patel, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago "Phase two involved creating online scheduling for new patients seeking primary care and activating new and return direct online scheduling for specialty departments," he continued. "This phase was specific for addressing the desire for self-scheduling and aimed to increase patient portal adoption and online bill pay even more." Phase three focused on the integration of telehealth and making all these tools available in Spanish. Phase four prioritized the development of educational materials, asynchronous e-visits and service recovery. "Addressing our scheduling strategy and operational efficiency and optimizing our care flows with the patient portal and digital front door alleviated the issues we were seeing with our limited entry points to care at Lurie Children’s," he reported. MEETING THE CHALLENGE Ensuring Lurie Children’s staff was comfortable with the patient portal technology was an important piece to ensuring this transition would be effective in meeting the challenge. The aforementioned functionalities were the tools used by patients to effectively engage with staff as their care providers in a variety of modalities. RESULTS One way Lurie Children’s monitors the success of the technology is by tracking patient portal use. 91% of patients have logged into their portal account within three months of an encounter. "We see our patients actively engaging with the digital tools," Patel said. "This increase is attributed to diligent performance management of activation workflows, defined goals, and transparent and easily accessible monitoring dashboard for end users and managers. Higher patient portal use also is attributed to a 65% decrease in patient encounters where portal activation codes were not offered or activated. "Additionally, since July 2020, our online scheduling rate increased 14-fold, going from 0.1% up to 14% as of October 2023," he continued. "Lurie Children’s has undertaken an extensive decision tree project that uses logic to ensure the right patient is scheduled with the right provider at the right location and time with the right method." These algorithms have vastly increased the ability to self-schedule and improve the overall scheduling experience for families and patients, referring providers, and other Lurie Children’s Hospital clinicians, he added. Decision trees have been key in the online scheduling success and have helped expedite appointment scheduling, he said. ADVICE FOR OTHERS "If another organization was considering adopting a similar technology, setting up a robust education/support structure for both clinicians and patients should be prioritized and established before implementation," Patel advised. "Finding a way to bridge the gap with teenage patients also is difficult," he continued. "The legal restrictions within the state create challenges with proxy support/access and teenage rights to access their own private health information. Having high portal activation and usage in a pediatric institution is difficult because you're dealing with two different levels of access and health rights." Sorting out the legal component is a difficult obstacle to overcome but should be considered if an institution is thinking about implementing a similar portal system, he added. "Most important, addressing the unconscious bias is critical to drive equality in access to the patient portal and thereby promoting equity in the various tools available to patients to use at their preference to access the healthcare needed for them and their families," he concluded. Follow Bill's HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

Children at Lurie Children's Hospital experience a heartwarming surprise: hi-tech robotic Aflac ducks delivered with a day full of festive activities for pediatric patients COLUMBUS, Ga., Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac, a leading provider of supplemental health insurance products in the U.S. and a proud supporter of families of children with cancer and blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, yesterday delivered its acclaimed My Special Aflac Ducks to children at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. Continue Reading Since 2018, My Special Aflac Duck® has brought comfort and joy to over 25,000 kids with cancer and sickle cell disease. Post this Children at Lurie Children’s Hospital experience a heartwarming surprise: hi-tech robotic Aflac ducks delivered with a day full of festive activities for pediatric patients. The robotic duck utilizes medical play, realistic motions, and emulates emotions to interact with and provide comfort to children as they navigate treatment. My Special Aflac Duck was created following extensive research spanning over 18 months, involving more than 100 children, families and health care professionals. Its primary aim is to assist children with the emotional side of managing their treatments. It is part of Aflac's commitment to children and families facing pediatric cancer and blood disorders that extends over 28 years and $170 million. "Aflac's mission has always been to be there when people need us the most," said Ines Rodriguez Gutzmer, senior vice president and chief communications officer, Aflac Incorporated. "My Special Aflac Duck is a vivid expression of that commitment, and it is heartwarming to witness the smiles of Chicago's children and families as they welcome a new friend to walk with them on their journey. This remarkable program has brought comfort and joy to over 25,000 children, and we are honored to provide this award-winning resource, free of charge, to any child diagnosed with pediatric cancer and sickle cell disease in the United States, Northern Ireland and Japan." Children at Lurie Children's Hospital participated in a My Special Aflac Duck demonstration and fun challenges before meeting their very own robotic companion, which is theirs to keep. Patients and their families were invited to stay for the duck reveal party, along with various activities like creating a birth certificate and beaded necklace for their duck, coloring and more. "The My Special Aflac Duck is an incredible tool that helps provide comfort to our patients and allows them to express themselves through the duck's emotion choices. The My Special Aflac Duck also brings joy and much needed distraction to our patients who are going through a particularly difficult time," said T.J. Johnson, Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, Lurie Children's Hospital. "This program is an amazing addition to our child life programming, and Lurie Children's is very appreciative of our partnership with Aflac." Additional elements of My Special Aflac Duck include an interactive mobile app that allows children to virtually bathe and feed their duck, featuring customizable soundscapes that provide soothing visuals and sounds, smart sensors that enable touch and awareness of light and sounds, a calming heartbeat and breathing vibrations. My Special Aflac Duck was named Best in Show at CES in Las Vegas and was named to Time Magazine's list of Best Inventions. Health care providers, support organizations and families can order My Special Aflac Duck for children three years or older who have been diagnosed with cancer or sickle cell disease at . ABOUT AFLAC INCORPORATED Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL), a Fortune 500 company, has helped provide financial protection and peace of mind for more than 68 years to millions of policyholders and customers through its subsidiaries in the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., Aflac is the No. 1 provider of supplemental health insurance products.1 In Japan, Aflac Life Insurance Japan is the leading provider of cancer and medical insurance policies in force. The company takes pride in being there for its policyholders when they need us most, as well as being included in 2023 in the World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for 17 consecutive years, Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies for 22 years and Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index for the fourth consecutive year. In addition, the company became a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2021 and has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (2022) for nine years. To find out how to get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover, get to know us at aflac.com or aflac.com/espanol. Investors may learn more about Aflac Incorporated and its commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability at investors.aflac.com under "Sustainability." About Lurie Children's In the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best children's hospitals, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago continues to be the top pediatric hospital in Illinois. Lurie Children's provides superior pediatric care in a state-of-the-art hospital that offers the latest benefits and innovations in medical technology, family-friendly design and research through the Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute. 1 LIMRA 2022 U.S. Supplemental Health Insurance Total Market Report Media contact for Aflac: Jon Sullivan, 706-763-4813 or [email protected] Media contact for Lurie Children's Hospital: Miranda Coello, 312-402-3618 or [email protected] Analyst and investor contact for Aflac: David A. Young, 706-596-3264, 800-235-2667 or [email protected] SOURCE Aflac