This message from Ballad Health’s IT security team originated from the American Society of Health Care Engineering (ASHE), a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association (AHA). The AHA has become aware of an ongoing cyber incident which may involve ASHE and AHA members and customers receiving fraudulent emails. These fraudulent emails may instruct recipients to make changes to the payment destination for pending payments to the AHA. Please do not act upon or reply to these emails (or other emails that are suspicious or unusual). If you or someone in your organization received any such email recently to change payment instructions related to the AHA and changed your AHA payment destination based upon an email, we recommend the following steps (see below). In addition, consult with your counsel and your other cyber incident professionals. Notify your financial institution immediately and ask that the payment be stopped or recalled. If notification is made to…

Hello World, Ballad Health’s new two-way texting system, is now live! This system allows you to more easily manage your own healthcare and saves time for patients and clinics alike. How does it work? As a patient, once you’ve opted in to the new Hello World notification system, you will receive text notifications from Ballad Health about appointments and bill pay. The “two-way” aspect of this platform means you can easily respond to these messages with simple prompts, allowing you to confirm or cancel appointments or pay bills, with additional features planned for the future. Once opted in, you can easily opt out at any time. Sign me up! Signing up is fast and easy. There are three ways you can opt in for notifications: Text JOIN to 47649. Log in to MyChart and set up customized notifications in your Communication Preferences. Ask a front desk team member to turn them on for you. This…

Ballad Health will soon be introducing a new two-way text notification system for patients called “Hello World,” available through Epic, that will allow them to more easily manage their own healthcare. This system will also save time for both clinics and patients. We are targeting Monday, Aug. 28, to bring this functionality live. This date may flex slightly due to approval required from the three major carriers. How does it work? As a patient, once you’ve opted in to the new Hello World notification system, you will receive text notifications about appointments and bill pay. The “two-way” aspect of this platform means you can easily respond to these messages with simple prompts, allowing you to confirm or cancel appointments or pay bills, with additional features planned for the future. Once opted in, you can easily opt out at any time. Resources and info We’ve got more information about this project on the Ballad Health intranet on…

Ballad Health is upgrading to Epic Hyperdrive, a new platform for accessing Epic Hyperspace, effective Tuesday, Aug. 8. After this change, team members will no longer use Hyperspace as a login option. The transition will require about a two-hour downtime, from midnight to 2 a.m. on Tuesday. Please follow downtime procedures during this time. IT will send out a notice when the transition is complete. Click here to visit the Epic Hyperdrive site on the ShareIT site of the intranet. Why are we upgrading? This change will benefit our patients and our dedicated frontline team members, and it is a necessary step as we stay up-to-date with the latest Epic upgrades for security purposes. Clinicians will notice some minor differences in the interface and where information is located, but the overall user experience will be familiar. Epic Hyperdrive will provide a more user-friendly interface for the Epic menu, improving workflows for various activities and tools….

We are now live systemwide with the new Infor CloudSuite system, ending our weeklong downtime! The go-live began at about 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 27. Infor CloudSuite replaces the Infor Lawson system we had used since Ballad Health formed. NOTE: The Axiom conversion was completed on Thursday, June 29, at 8 a.m., allowing users to resume doing their normal tasks in Axiom. We’re excited to finally be able to offer this improved site experience for our team members, and we’re confident you will enjoy its new features and improved layout. If you have issues with your work duties involving Infor CloudSuite, consult your manager or contact the IT Service Desk at 423-431-6290. There are IT support teams ready to assist. Some of your questions might also be answered on the FAQs page, located on our Infor CloudSuite site on ShareIT. So what is Infor CloudSuite? This internal platform is used by team members and contractors…

As you may know by now, the new Infor CloudSuite system goes live on the morning of Tuesday, June 27. This upgrade is going to bring a lot of enhancements when using our HR & Payroll Service Center, including improvements to layout, automation and security. Be aware that, as part of the steps taken to improve security around team member accounts, we will now be using a multi-factor authentication (MFA) app for all team member logins to Infor CloudSuite from personal devices. While team members are not required to install the multi-factor authenticator on their personal devices, anyone without MFA will not be able to access the HR & Payroll Service Center from his/her personal device. See a tip sheet on the Ballad Health intranet about how to install MFA on your phone. Once Infor CloudSuite is live on Tuesday, June 27, team members can still access all CloudSuite functions through Ballad Health devices –…

Ballad Health is transitioning from the Infor Lawson system to the new Infor CloudSuite system. This is the platform we use for a wide range of internal tasks, including access to pay history, tax documents, benefits, direct deposit, expense and mileage reimbursement forms, supply orders and much more. Go-live is taking place this month. We will experience a downtime when some functions are not available. Please see the IT Advisory and the email message sent to all Ballad Health team members containing more details about the upgrade and the downtime. For most team members, once the system is back up, the changes from Lawson to Infor CloudSuite will be noticeable but minor, and it should make many of your basic tasks easier to complete. Managers will see bigger changes than others in how they do many of their tasks, but the system will be much easier for them to use going forward and will be…

Ballad Health is upgrading to Epic Hyperdrive, a new platform for accessing Epic Hyperspace. We have prepared for this transition with our last couple Epic upgrades. This change will benefit our patients and our dedicated frontline team members, and it is a necessary step as we stay up-to-date with the latest Epic upgrades for security purposes. The rollout of Hyperdrive will occur in three phases, with the first phase being a small pilot project this month involving select users at Franklin Woods Community Hospital and a few clinics. Then a wider – but still limited – rollout will occur in July, followed by the systemwide go-live taking place in August. Watch for more communications as we get closer to go-live. NOTE: If you’re part of the pilot community for Phases 1 or 2, more information can be found on the ShareIT site on the Ballad Health intranet here. You can also access it by going…

Our legacy intranet sites – Wellnet for L-Wellmont and Pulse for L-Mountain States Health Alliance – will stop displaying on the Ballad Health intranet page and be decommissioned on Tuesday, April 25. Team members who use those sites are instructed to access all their internal SharePoint sites via the Ballad Health intranet main page. All legacy intranet pages from those legacy sites have already been transitioned over to the new Ballad Health intranet and are available there. URGENT: Please check in advance to make sure any sites you use are already re-established on the Ballad Health intranet. If you find that a page/site has not yet been transitioned from one of the legacy intranets to the Ballad Health intranet, contact the IT Service Desk at 423-431-6290 or email the desk at helpdesk@balladhealth.org. How to find sites on the Ballad Health intranet Our IT team has created a page that displays, in Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet format,…

Our legacy intranet sites – Wellnet for L-Wellmont and Pulse for L-Mountain States Health Alliance – will stop displaying on the Ballad Health intranet page and be decommissioned on April 25. Team members who use those sites are instructed to access all their internal SharePoint sites via the Ballad Health intranet main page. Many of the crucial intranet pages from those legacy sites have already been transitioned over to the new Ballad Health intranet and are available there. We continue to evaluate legacy pages and migrate them to the Ballad Health intranet. More details are forthcoming. URGENT: Please check in advance to see if any sites you use are already re-established on the Ballad Health intranet. For old pages that are not already established on the Ballad Health intranet – once any of these pages are transitioned to the Ballad Health intranet, and the old Pulse and Wellnet sites are removed, team members will need…

Recently, a top official in the U.S. Executive Branch announced their Twitter account had been hacked. “Hacking” a Twitter account usually means the person’s email address and password were obtained in some other breach and the bad guys tried that combination on Twitter. Account compromises occur daily in a world where every website requires some form of account username and password. Generally, websites (especially social media sites) require an email address as the username. If any of these websites are compromised or if you fail to recognize a phishing attack, then it is likely your email username and password have also been compromised.  If you have used the same email address and password on other sites, then your compromised credentials could be used to access other websites with the same credentials, potentially exposing any information concerning you within those sites. Five steps Here are some steps to help users understand how to protect your online…