JPS outage leaves patients without critical medications as suspension of normal operations stretches on

JPS Hospital's ongoing computer outage has left some patients unable to refill essential medications, according to families who say they've spent days trying to get prescriptions approved.

The outage, now in its 11th day, has disrupted access to medical records, prescription histories, and scheduling systems.
In its one and only statement on the matter last Friday, the hospital said it voluntarily took systems offline after noticing suspicious activity with its technology.

A hospital spokesperson said on Wednesday that it was working on another update, but it had yet to release one as of this report.

CBS News Texas spoke to nearly a dozen patients and reviewed many more comments patients had left online.

One woman said her surgery had been postponed because of the network outage. The most common problem, though, appeared to be trouble getting prescriptions filled.

Kenneth Frost manages his mother's medication for rheumatoid arthritis.

"She takes approximately eight different medications a day," he said.

The last two weeks, though, he said, he hasn't been able to get those prescriptions refilled, due to the outage at JPS. He showed CBS News Texas one prescription bottle with a single pill left.

Another medication, he said, ran out last Friday.

"The pain, inflammation is basically just swelling up," he said. "We sort of try to combat that with Tylenol."

His wife, Lindsey, who's also a JPS patient, suffers from arthritis, too. He said she's having trouble getting the injectable medication she takes weekly for it.

"She took her dose last Friday as well. So, coming up this Friday will be a full week without it," he said.

Sudden withdrawal, he said, can increase the risk of heart complications.

Some patients told CBS News Texas they've been able to refill prescriptions by picking up handwritten orders directly from their doctors and taking them to the pharmacy, or by bringing their prescription bottles to pharmacies. Others, though, including Frost, said those methods didn't work for them.

Frost said he's been going in circles trying to help his mom. The hospital, he said, directed him to speak to his pharmacy. He said, CVS, though, has told him to contact his doctor.

"The pharmacy shows one refill, but when CVS went to refill it, they said the prescriber denied it," Frost said.

Frost said he finally received a call from his mother's doctor on Tuesday, letting him know she needed lab work to determine what she needed.

"They can't find their medication files on charts. They don't know what the history is with the patients," he said.

Frost said that during a visit to the hospital last week, he saw long lines and upset patients, as well as doctors and nurses scrambling to work with pen and paper.

JPS hasn't indicated how long it expects systems to remain down, but said in its statement, "restoring our technology environment safely is careful, methodical work that takes time."

The Fort Worth Fire Department confirmed, as of Thursday afternoon, it is still diverting trauma, stroke, and heart attack patients to other hospitals, on account of the challenges JPS is facing.

In the meantime, a catastrophe notice JPS filed with the Texas Attorney General's Office expired on Wednesday. 

Thursday, it filed for an extension through next Wednesday, Aug. 19.

The notice informs the state that the hospital cannot currently comply with the public records law.

CBS News Texas will provide updates as more information becomes available.