Beaumont closes the vulnerability program that allowed people to “line up” for vaccinations

The Beaumont Health IT team detected and stopped unusual activity on Saturday related to the online scheduling of COVID-19 vaccination, the hospital announced on Sunday.

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The unusual activity took place on Beaumont’s Epic electronic medical record system. The Beaumont team determined that a user took advantage of the vulnerability of the Epic planning tool and publicly shared an unauthorized planning path, which allowed 2,700 people to “line up” and register for an unauthorized vaccination program.

Beaumont cancels all appointments that used the unauthorized route.

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Beaumont notified the Epic national office so that it could communicate with other health systems to prevent it from occurring elsewhere.

Beaumont said no one’s personal data or any hospital records were compromised in terms of vulnerability. The path simply allowed users to schedule an unauthorized meeting that bypassed the current mandates in Michigan.

These appointments violate the ethical distribution framework that Beaumont created based on mandatory Michigan state guidelines. We are sorry that 2,700 people in our community have fallen victim to this unfortunate incident, ”said Hans Keil, senior vice president and chief information officer for Beaumont Health. “We maintain our commitment to vaccinate as many people as possible who follow the guidelines of the state. We also inform the Michigan Hospital Association and other Michigan health systems about this issue. ”

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READ: Michigan COVID-19 Vaccinations: How to Find Dates, Phase Information