Individuals to start receiving notification letters the week of April 8

The review into affected data from the cyber attack at Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Windsor Regional Hospital, along with their shared services provider, TransForm Shared Service Organization, is now complete with individuals in our communities being notified if their information was impacted.

Individuals will start to receive letters in the mail during the week of April 8 from hospital providers if their information was stolen by cyber criminals during the attack. This complex cyber attack took place on October 23, 2023, and impacted each hospital individually. Electronic Medical Records were not impacted, however personal health information stored elsewhere on our systems was involved, including patient and employee information.

The following is the approximate number of patients per hospital that will receive notification by letter. Please note that if a patient was seen at multiple hospitals, they will receive multiple letters, so there is likely overlap in these totals.

• Erie Shores HealthCare: 102,000
• Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare: 46,000
• Windsor Regional Hospital: 27,800
• Chatham-Kent Health Alliance: 69,000
• Bluewater Health: 82,000

Our approach around notifying individuals has been done in communication with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner. We continue to work to strengthen our systems to prevent these types of incidents – which have become all too common for organizations across Canada and the globe.

To our patients, community, and healthcare professionals, we truly apologize for the inconvenience this cyber attack has caused you. Thank you for your patience throughout this notification period.