Cyberattack puts healthcare on hold for hundreds in St. Louis metro

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Sometime in April, Esse Health was hit by a cyberattack, locking up parts of the health group’s computer network and putting healthcare on hold for many patients.

Cindy Wagner needs to switch to a new doctor but her records can’t be transferred because they’re locked up in the frozen computer system.

“I am in a limbo. I’m waiting, hoping they do something very soon,” she said.

Esse Health is an independent physician group serving the St. Louis metropolitan area with over 100 doctors at 45 locations.

In a prepared statement, the company said, “Esse Health recently discovered unusual activity on select network systems. We quickly worked to secure the network and engaged third-party specialists to help us investigate the matter.”

Some patients complained that they were never notified about the cyberattack. The outage has made company and physician phones mostly inoperable. Patients say texting has worked well but appointments and procedures are being put on hold.

“I had an appointment on April 30th that I had waited 88 days for, to see a specialist. And the day before the appointment that office sent me a text message saying we need to cancel the appointment because we can’t access any records,” said Rhonda Barrett.

A spokesperson for Esse Health said it hasn’t been determined yet whether patient personal information had been compromised.

Copyright 2025 KMOV. All rights reserved.