Methodist IT staff members step up to help Children’s Nebraska in time of need

A message from Kent Sona, vice president and chief information officer

You probably saw the headlines Friday and throughout the weekend after Microsoft Windows users were impacted by a faulty software update with CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm used by companies worldwide. 

Methodist Health System doesn’t use CrowdStrike and wasn’t affected directly – but a close partner, Children’s Nebraska, was.

Within an hour of Children’s accepting our offer for assistance, Methodist employees were on site to help manually repair affected computers. One Methodist staff member soon devised a program to automate the work, cutting the time required to repair each machine by about half.

Ultimately, over a dozen Methodist employees put in 97 total hours throughout the day. In many cases, they entered patient rooms with seriously ill children to work. The emotional impact of seeing those patients – and indirectly helping to care for them – won’t be forgotten, one Methodist staff member said.

In the days since, we’ve received numerous messages of thanks from Children’s leadership.

“It has been an absolute whirlwind since early Friday, but I would like to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for your swift and invaluable support during our CrowdStrike incident,” said Melissa Rappl, CHC, CHPC, CISSP, Children’s chief information security officer. “The expertise and dedication demonstrated by your team members was nothing short of extraordinary.”

“As one of our team members shared, it was like knights riding in on their horses!” added Wendy Worthing, PMP, director of IT operations for Children’s.

At Methodist, our mission to improve the health of our communities by the way we care, educate and innovate isn’t just empty talk. We live it. And the work by these individuals to assist a partner in need, and in turn benefit patients, should be commended. Their efforts were invaluable to ensuring a fast recovery for Children’s.

On behalf of the entire leadership team, thank you all for your outstanding work in demonstrating The Meaning of Care!